The Story of the Crimson Knight
by Aegeta
Summary: The story takes place in a similar word to 616, with some differences. Watch as the Crimson Knight starts off in his campaign for justice in in home city of Atlanta and meets heroes and villains from all of the marvel U and develops into a world class hero. Please leave a review!
1. Year One (Part One)

The Story of Crimson Knight

A young man stands in front of a school with a backup strapped over one shoulder. He has blonde hair, green eyes, and has an athletic for a 15 year old. "It's my first day back in school in just over a year," he says to himself as he enters his high school. He sits down at a table to wait for school to officially start. "I've spent the last seven years training with Master Osen at every waking opportunity and we've been training for the last year straight. The thought of school feels so foreign now. Cass and I have always been way ahead of the curve. Hell, we have even helped of family's company grow over the last few years into a major corporation. In 5 years we should be one of the biggest companies on the planet. I'm just glad that I'm finally ready to start. Tonight will be my first shot at it. All the prep work is done all that's left now…." He tells himself.

"Helllllooooo Wade? Are you listening to us?" A young red head asks sitting across from him with a blonde girl sitting next to her, both looking at Wade.

"Sorry I didn't mean to ignore you. Just have a lot on my mind right now Cass." He explains to her in a kind and soft tone. "What did you say again?"

"I asked are you glad to be back State side? I bet you don't remember who I am do you? I've changed a lot over the last year," the blonde girl says with a smile.

"I guess I am. Europe was very fun, but I found the nature more to my tastes so we spent a lot of our time traveling while I studied. Oh and you are Jessica Dun. Did you really think I would forget you? I've only been gone for a year," he says with a smile.

"Oh so you DO remember me? I'm flattered. I've also been practiced Tae Kwon Do with Cassie here. I'm almost as good as she is now," Jessica says proudly.

"That's good to hear. I think I've reached my limit to be honest. I don't see how else I can improve from here onward, so I think I'm going to focus my time elsewhere. Maybe I'll try engineering or something to keep me occupied. I'll still keep working out so I don't get rusty, but that's about it," he says smugly.

The rest of the day goes by quickly and Wade barely survives the monotony of the day. The ease of the material they were "studying", the people that he just couldn't connect with or understand anymore, it came to a head when a discussion about a recent demonstration of an anti-mutant group came up. Wade defended the mutants stating "What makes them any different than us? What makes them any different than Captain America? Birth? Most likely just want to live a normal life, powers or not!" This left most of his fellow students speechless as many knew he was a supporter of mutant rights because his family's company employs people of all races equally, even mutants, but he has never been that vocal on the subject.

Later that night Wade sits in his room. "Alright time to get started," he says as a red glow envelopes his body and then he is wearing red and black medieval-like leather armor, and European longsword, though only about the length of a katana, and white bandage-like wraps around his face covering everything but his eyes, which now are red. "Time to go," he says as he moves so fast it appears he vanishes. With his super speed, what he calls "Blitz" he is able to get to the building in Downtown Atlanta fairly quickly. He decides to return to normal speed as he scopes out the building before entering from a second floor window. This building is being used to house people that are being sold into slavery. Human trafficking has been a problem for decades now and _Crimson Knight_ is going to start fighting it. "Atlanta has been the hub for human trafficking since the 70's and no one seems to be going after them, you'd think New York would be able to spare a hero or two help, but maybe I can inspire our few local heroes to start taking a real stance here," he says to himself as he hears movement coming from down the hall. Crimson Knight slowly peaks around the doorway toward the sound and sees two men sitting at a table with hand guns next to their right hands.

"Those are Beretta 9mms, I should be able to take them down without too much of a fight. It'll be a little loud, thought. Let's see…" he says to himself as he closes his eyes and listens. "There's a third person in that room and sounds like four more downstairs. I don't know about the basement. No point in being subtle at this point," he tells himself as he swiftly runs into the room with the three armed men kicking the table and the men's guns away from them. The two people he saw from outside of the room stand to fight back, but Crimson Knight is already punching the one on his left and elbows the one on his right before charging the third man and kicking him right in the gut. Crimson takes a few moments to gather himself and calm down before getting ready to hide for the next group. He leaves the room shutting the door so the struggle can't be seen from the hallway and he heads back into the room he initially entered from and hides.

"Hey! You three okay up there? What was that noise?" a voice calls from downstairs with no answer. After a few moments the sounds of footsteps are heard coming upstairs.

"Good, only one person is coming up," Crimson tells himself and waits for him to get close. The man passes the room Crimson is hiding in. He jumps out grabbing the gun in the man's right hand and prevents him from firing off a round and wraps his left arm around the man's neck to knock him out. After a few moments the armed man passes out. Crimson sneaks down stairs to see that the other three are alert and waiting for an all clear signal. Crimson can't get a feel for how well they are armed only that they are waiting for him around the corner. With his Blitz he could get an edge and close the distance before they even knew he was there, but he hates using his powers unless he has to, especially against normal people. That and his super speed isn't that great with quick turns. "Oh well, you only live once right?" he tells himself with a smile and draws his sword. He turns the corner and notices his targets, throwing a throwing knife at a man armed with a handgun on his left. The other two open fire and Crimson is able to stay ahead of them by predicting where they are firing by the angles of their guns. He is able to close the distance on the man on his far right and cuts his gun in half with one slash of his sword and charges the last armed man. Crimson is almost hit because the man is getting scared and harder to predict. Crimson is able to grab the man's hand with his left hand and forces him to drop the gun. He flips his sword around and thrusts the hilt into the man's stomach. Immediately after this Crimson swings his sword at the man from behind him that was attacking him with a knife, he then turns and kicks him in the back of his neck knocking him out.

"Seven men and I haven't broken a sweat? Did I over prepare for this or were they just that weak? No matter time to go free the people in the basement," he mutters to himself. He picks up one of the men's cell phones and calls 911 to come and clean up. He cautiously heads down stairs making sure that there are no more criminals in the building. When he gets to the cages he feels something he isn't used to anger. He sees forty people, most kids his age, packed into these cages. "Don't worry, I'm here to help. Stand back from the door," he tells them and they back away and he cuts the lock off the cage and frees them. "The police will be here soon to help."

"Thank you, oh thank you mister! Who are you?" one of the younger girls asks.

"Crimson Knight, I'll stay until the police arrive," he answers. Crimson stays until he hears sirens before sneaking out unnoticed by the people he just saved.

Crimson Knight stays in the city for a few more hours fighting street crime before heading home with the feeling of accomplishment for the first time in years. He finally feels like he is doing something meaningful, what he was supposed to do. Wade has no real reason to want to be a superhero like Crimson Knight, the only motivation he needs in this world is justice. "The strong have a duty to protect the weak and innocent" his Master's words resonate with him now more than ever. He is finally becoming the more and more like the man he respects more and anyone else. Wade goes to sleep right as he gets home, he has to get up and get ready for school in three hours.

Wade continues to live this kind of life for the next six months. One day Wade, Cassandra, and their father are at Prometheus headquarters checking into a new project. Wade sees something, a person maybe, out of the corner of his eye and decides to investigate. It was a person! Wade decides to tail them. Over the last year and a half he has gotten really good at sneaking around and tailing people or so he thought as he enters a room he's attacked and barely dodges an elbow that likely would have knocked him out. He makes out the figure to be that of a girl about his age.

"Phew, that was a close one," he says with a smile and throws a left at the girl just to have her casually brush the punch aside a come at him with a right. This surprises Wade and he pushes her away with his right. "So you aren't an amateur are you? Guess I need to step it up a few notches then."

"Walk away and I will not hurt you," the girl says and pops two metal claws from between her knuckles.

This sight surprises Wade. "Wow that's new," he smirks and gets into a fighting stance and charges her. They exchange blows and he is barely able to keep up with her movements. This girl isn't as strong as him but she definitely has the edge in flexibility and they are about even in terms of agility. Wade then notices something after a few minutes both of them are going all out and have been since the start of the fight, but she isn't even winded. If he wants to beat her or even restrain her he isn't going to be able to do so without using his powers. His body has definite limits when he isn't pulling magic from his soul and soulforge. As he thinks this she attacks again with a right slash and Wade is just barely able to get out of most of it, but she cuts his arm open a little bit. Blood drips from his arm, but it isn't that bad and he can still move it. At that time some Prometheus security guards rush into the room and Wade takes the opportunity to restrain the girl and the guards assist him when they notice he is having issues.

A little bit later the girl has been confined in an experimental holding cell for super humans the Technological Division has made. Wade has treated his arm with the medical supplies at his disposal and is now in a room with security, his sister, and father. "Dad I want to talk to her. I'm going to go into her cell," he tells them and grabs a bottled water.

"No you can't! She almost killed you!" His father tells him but falls on deaf ears as Wade walks out of the room and toward the holding cell.

Wade enters a code on the door panel and walks in throwing the bottled water toward the girl. She catches the bottle without taking her eyes off of Wade. The door closes and locks behind Wade and he leans up against the wall. "Soooo… why did you break in here?"

"My mother worked here at one time. I wanted to gather information on what she worked on," the girl says flatly.

"There are easier ways to get that kind of information you know? You could've just asked. We may have said no on some points to protect the company's interests, but we could arrange a meeting with some of her coworkers," Wade tells her.

"I could not afford that and I am less interested with her interpersonal relationships than her work, so it would not have benefited me to get a fraction of the information I came for," she says coldly.

Wade smiles. "You don't use contractions and you speak "perfect" English. Were you raised in isolation? What kind of mother subjects her daughter to that?" he goads her, trying to get a reaction out of her.

The girl clinches her teeth a little. "It was not her choice; she died to free me of that place. She left a letter for me explaining the whole story of my birth and her wishes for me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult her," he says and knocks on the window next to him. "Please contact the police and tell them that the intruder call was a false alarm and once this young woman tells us her mother's name please get her all the files we have on her."

"What are you doing? I would have killed you." She asks.

"Sometimes you have to rely on your gut and not your head. Also, what is your living status and your name?" he asks her.

"My mother's name was Sarah Kinney and mine is Laura Kinney. I currently am moving from place to place as the situation calls for it. It is not very safe for me to stay in one place for too long," Laura explains.

"Really? Well you are free to stay with us until it's time for you to move on free of charge of course. We have a few extra bedrooms and a large training facility behind the house where I spend most of my time. Hopefully you'll accept and I can get another shot at you. I haven't been pushed that far in a while." Wade says with a smile.

"What do you intend to gain from me?" Laura asks bluntly.

"Nothing at all, I don't really have any desires anymore. I'm doing everything I've ever wanted right now. Oh but the house does have a few rules like going to school. Its lame I know but it is good for social interaction at least," he tells Laura.

"If you allow me to see my mother's files I will stay for as long as I can. That is all I can promise."

True to his word Laura got the files on her mother and she did move into the family's home, much to David's, Wade's Father, discomfort. Wade always seemed to have a reason behind everything he does, so he decides to not fight it too hard and it seems like Laura doesn't seem to want to cause them any harm. Laura has a hard time in school and social situations, but fortunately she has Cassandra there to help her out when Laura does something most would consider strange. Over the next few days Wade and Laura spar after school and Wade, no claws however. Normally Wade disappears shortly after and when Laura asks about it to Cassandra she just says 'that's how he is now.' Laura, Wade, and Cassandra do connect pretty easily and it seems Wade has become smitten with Laura.

A few months later Wade is patrolling Atlanta as Crimson Knight when his ear piece picks up a report of two people, a man with an axe and a woman using magic, terrorizing the city. The report also mentions that other local heroes have tried to stop them and failed. "Guess I should lend a hand as well," he says and blitzes to the area at top speed. When he gets to the area he scopes out the two people from around a corner. Crimson sees destruction and a few people knocked out around them all local heroes, most with powers.

Crimson Knight turns the corner sword drawn, "You've certainly made a mess here, but its time you leave or eat dirt. This is your only warning don't waste it," he demands readying himself for the fight to come.

"Oh look he thinks he is people. Skurge, be a dear and deal with this mortal please," the woman orders and the large man with the axe steps forward.

"Great, Asgardians, there goes my evening," Crimson Knight says and charges the large man.

Crimson thrusts his blade at Skurge but he blocks it effortlessly and then sends a slash right into Crimson's gut. Fortunately, Crimson was able to block it with his sword in time, but the force of the strike sends him flying backwards and hitting the ground hard. Crimson barely has the time to throw himself out of the way of Skurge's follow up attack and make it back to his feet.

"Interesting, your sword didn't break. It must be magicalmade of some very impressive metal," the woman says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, its soulforged, I guess I shouldn't be surprised about that one's strength. I guess I was way too cocky to think I could bring either of you down without using my powers. I just didn't think I would have to show so many people my powers so soon in my career. You see I hate relying on them," Crimson Knight says as he stands up and a red glow appears around his body then vanishes.

The next thing the woman and Skurge knows Crimson has vanished. Skurge feels something on his right shoulder, something heavy. Skurge turns his head to see Crimson Knight crouched on his shoulder and thrusting his sword down into his shoulder. The blade makes contact and pierces Skurge's shoulder and blood erupts from the wound. Skurge's actions are quick but to slow to stop Crimson's attack however it does force Crimson to retreat to a safe distance.

"I'm not gonna be able to fight you head on in terms of strength big guy," Crimson says with a smile. "But I guarantee that this fight won't last much longer."

Skurge angrily charges at Crimson Knight and slashes at him with his axe. Crimson's sword glows purple and he spins in order to order Skurge's attack and reprises with a few slashes of his own against Skurge all in one motion. Crimson's blade doesn't cut Skurge as much as "phase" through him causing pain and making him fall to the ground. At this point Crimson blitzes over to the woman, his blade glowing yellow, and swings at her with all of his might. The woman throws up a magical force field to stop the attack, but the force field shatters and the blade makes contact with her sending her into a nearby parked car. Crimson senses danger coming from behind him in the air but close. Skurge is jumping at him with his axe coming down quickly. Crimson's sword glows blue and he quickly turns around and slashes toward Skurge in one motion and a blue wave of energy emanates from the blade hitting Skurge in midair sending him flying back up and then falling into the ground.

Crimson Knight sheathes his sword. "Damnit, I thought they would have put up more of a fight." Off in the distance he hears a motorcycle and he looks toward the sound to see Captain America drive up.

Captain America parks and walks over to Crimson Knight. "Did you take them out by yourself son?" Captain America asks Crimson Knight.

"Yes, when I arrived they had already beaten the others here. I have to say I thought the first time I would have needed to use my powers I would have been pushed a little farther. Although I did surprise them, so that is something to consider," Crimson tells Captain America.

"Steve Rogers, Captain America," Steve says holding out his hand.

Crimson Knight shakes his hand. "Crimson Knight."

"I know, local law enforcement stated you arrived on scene and started fighting Enchantress and Executioner. You've made a good name for yourself in such a short time." Steve says as law enforcement and superpower containment vehicles pull up along with a few News vans.

Before they know it they are bombarded by questions from three news stations. "Crimson Knight, have you always had powers?" "Why were you hiding the fact that you had super powers?" "Were you hiding them because you are a mutant?"

"Ladies and gentlemen ple…" Steve starts but is interrupted by Crimson.

"I learned my powers through study and rituals. I "hid" the fact that I had powers because I dislike relying on them when I don't have too. My greatest powers are the same that everyone can attain, a sharp mind and a lot of training. No I am not a mutant even though I don't see a difference if I were one," he answers coldly. "Now if you'll excuse me I have other places to be." Crimson Knight says and then vanishes.

Wade gets home shortly after this and walks into his house to see his sister, mother, and father all talking about they just saw on T.V. while Laura sits on the couch looking unamused. "What has everyone so excited?" Wade asks.

"Wade, how have you not heard!? Crimson Knight has powers and took out two Asgardians! He even got Captain America's praise as a hero!" an excited Cassandra squeals.

"Captain America is not all that impressive," Laura says blandly.

"Wait, you've met him!?" Cassandra exclaims.

"Yes, he caught him once, but let me go after the situation was explained and a lawyer convinced him I was not responsible for my actions until after I left the Facility," Laura explains to her.

"Responsible for what?" Wade and Cassandra's mother, Ann, asks.

"Killing the people she's killed," Wade says bluntly.

"What!?" Ann exclaims.

"How do you know that?" Laura asks.

"I've fought killers, murders, soldiers, and victims. I can tell a great deal about someone from fighting them," Wade tells her.

"Is that why you invited me to live here?" She asks.

"Not at all, you definitely would kill your opponent, but you aren't a murderer in my opinion. I don't think you would kill for fun or without reason, but a good reason for you would likely be senseless for most people," Wade tells her with a smile.

"So why offer me a place to live?" Laura asks.

"He is just a nice guy Laura," Cassandra answers.

"That wasn't the only reason. I wanted to help if I could sure, but I wanted to give you a chance of a semi normal life. I think you have done really well over the last few months. Thought you still don't seem to get when someone is flirting with you. Trust me I've tried," Wade explains.

"You find me attractive? In what regard?" Laura asks.

"Strong, beautiful, intelligent, and a great fighter, what's not attractive about that?" Wade says as he walks out of the living room and upstairs to his room.

This leaves Laura confused, but she quickly pushes it out of her mind. A little later the two girls head upstairs and go to sleep.

A few weeks later Wade, Cassandra, and Laura are in Atlanta going to an anime convention there. Laura doesn't understand the appeal of it and there are too many people coming up to and talking to her for no reason.

"I do not understand the allure of this. What is the purpose?" Laura asks.

"Its just for fun Laura. Wade and I usually cosplay, but he said that might be a bit much for you so we should skip that part this year," Cassandra tells her.

"Cosplay?" Laura asks.

"You see the people dressed as Superheroes, video game, T.V., anime, and movie characters? They are cosplaying. Basically it is dressing up as your favorite character and pretending to be them for the day," Wade explains.

Suddenly three jeeps pull up and several armed men jump out. Laura pops her claws as the men come toward the three children. Wade pushes Cassandra behind him before jumping at the men trying to fight them off. Laura also jumps into them slashing and cutting at them. After a few seconds Wade sees one of the men aim his gun at Cassandra. Quickly, Wade charges at Cassandra and tackles her to the ground, but takes the shot to his right shoulder. Laura finishes off the people assaulting them, brutally, and goes over to Wade and Cassandra. After seeing they are both alive she runs off.

"Laura wait!" Wade screams at her as she runs off. He looks down at Cassandra.

"What are you waiting for? Go after her idiot!" Cassandra orders him.

"But…" Wade starts but is interrupted.

"GO!" She screams and Wade gets up and chases after Laura.

Wade chases after Laura and sees her running down an alley. "Laura!" he yells. "Wait!"

Laura stops and Wade catches up to her. "I did not mean for this to happen. They were after me. As long as I am with you and your family you are all in danger."

"And? I don't care about that at all," Wade explains. "I would rather not let you go at this alone. I'll come with you. You know I can hold my on in a fight."

"No you need to stay with your family. You are a good person and what is worse you do not know how rare that is in this world. It is much better that we part ways," Laura tells him. "I did…enjoy my time here with you and Cassandra and you both taught me so much, but it is time I go back into the real world." She tells him and walks away.

Wade stands there trying to decide if he should go with her or stay, tell her that he is Crimson Knight and they could bring these people to justice the right way. He wants to tell her everything, let her know she isn't alone anymore. Then she is gone, just gone.

"Hey kid! Are you okay?" A police officer asks running up to him. "Hey, let's get that looked at okay?" the officer says looking at the gunshot wound in his right shoulder.

The officer walks Wade back to the scene where there is an ambulance and multiple police cars are at. Wade is escorted over to the ambulance and one of rescue services people walks over to him to look at his wound.

"Get away from me. Cass, get this bullet out of my arm and patch me up!" Wade demands and takes his shirt off with a bit of difficultly as he is barely able to move his right arm. He sits down in the ambulance and waits for Cassandra to start working.

"Okay," Cassandra confirms and pulls out a box from her purse. She goes behind Wade and opens the box up. She takes out some medical gloves, a sealed pair of medical tongs and opens the bag, a sealed needle, and thread. "Okay this is going to hurt." She tells him, cleans the wound and starts to dig the bullet out of his shoulder. Once she removes the bullet she starts to sew the wound up. "Wade you have barely flinched are you okay?"

"No, I am so pissed off I have went full circle, so I am not really feeling anything right now," Wade tells her as Cassandra finishes off the stitches.

About this time an officer walks over to take their statements to which Cassandra explains what happened and Wade stays silent throughout most of it contemplating if letting Laura going alone was the right thing to do. He comes to the conclusion it wasn't, but decides to make it right by turning the hunter into the prey. He is going to find these people and stop them starting now. He'll give Laura the freedom she deserves.


	2. Year One (Part Two)

Chapter 2: Crimson Knight and the Wolverine

Note: I will be using public identities for characters that do not have a secret identity, once it has been established, but for characters with secret identities, like Wade, I will be separating the identities within the story.

Wade has been active as Crimson Knight now for nearly eleven months and Laura has been gone for two months. It has taken awhile, but he finally has a led on the group that attacked Laura, Cassandra, and him. They call themselves the Facility and they are the ones that created Laura. He was even more surprised when he found out that she was a clone, of a man no less. They have a small operational base in Atlanta that serves as a hunting ground for mutants they use for experimentation. Missing persons has become much easier to track now that the human trafficking rings in Atlanta are on the run from Crimson Knight.

"There it is. It's finally time to start," Crimson Knight says looking down at the building from a nearby roof.

Crimson Knight enters the building from a roof vent. Once he makes it into the building he gets a strange feeling. As he quietly explores the building he sees the signs of battle throughout the building and claw marks in the walls and bodies. At first he thought it was Laura but these marks were different, they were in pairs of three not two like Laura's. He hears a gun cock behind him. "Shit! I got distracted!" he says to himself and starts to turn around. He hears what sounds like a grunt and metal colliding then the sound of a deep exhale and blood hitting the ground.

Crimson Knight turns quickly, but what he sees he didn't expect. He sees a short man, about 5'3, wearing a yellow and blue costume, impaling a large, heavily armed man in the chest. Crimson Knight stands up quietly as the short man lets the armed man fall to the ground. The short man has three metal claws coming out of each hand. "You didn't have to kill him," Crimson Knight says sternly.

"Look kid, if I didn't he would have shot you. What is a kid like you doing here anyway?" the man says as his claws retract back into his hands.

"I had it handled. He would have got the shot off but my Shroud would have stopped it. I guess you're Wolverine. I don't need you here. I would actually like to have someone left alive that I can question," Crimson tells him.

"Yeah I am bub, but who are you? I don't think we've ever met before today. You learn about me from these jokers?" Wolverine asks.

"Sort of, I'm investigating these people in relation to an attack on three kids two months ago. One of the kids killed the attackers with metal claws like yours except she had two to your three," Crimson Knight tells him walking over to the man Wolverine just killed and goes through his pockets.

"So Laura was here and these guys attacked her. What happened to her and the other kids?" Wolverine asks propped up against a wall.

"Reports indicate that Laura killed them and ran off. The other two kids, whom she had been living with, suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and some minor cuts and bruises," Crimson Knight tells him.

"I'm guessing you already talked to the kids?" Wolverine asks.

"Yes, the parents too, they are very worried about Laura and asked me to find her if I could or at least find these guys and stop them," Crimson Knight tells him and stands up. "Great, nothing."

"Well I wouldn't say nothing, I got some information from one of them before they died. If you want it I might be willing to share it," Wolverine tells him with a smile.

"Oh? I could just ask really nicely, but that might draw unwanted attention. So what are your terms?" Crimson Knight says with a sigh.

"Well the place that he told me about is a place a kid your age would fit in pretty well," Wolverine tells him.

"One question for you, to determine if you are friend or foe in the long run. Why are you looking for Laura Kinney?" Crimson Knight asks sternly squeezing the hilt of his sword.

"Easy kid, you wouldn't like what happens after you hit me. I'm just here to help Laura. I want to take her back with me. It's a safe place where mutants can live well and there is a person there that's always helped me even when I gave him good reason not to. I just want to help her, so she can end up better than I have," Wolverine tells him honestly.

"Understood, so tell me where am I going?" Crimson Knights relaxes the grip on his sword.

Wolverine and Crimson Knight talk for a few more minutes about when and where they need to meet up the next day. Crimson Knight is hesitant at first because it requires civilian cloths and he hasn't revealed his identity to anyone outside of his Master Osen, but decides that Wolverine can be trusted.

Wade shows up at the rondevu place the next day and waits for Wolverine to show up. He doesn't seem like the kind of person that would be easy to miss, but he keeps his eye out just in case. Wade eventually spots a man in a white shirt and jacket on pull up on a motorcycle. His shape and size is right, but Wade decides to wait and see if he approaches him and he does.

"Hey kid, so the _reports_ indicated huh?" the man says with a chuckle. "The names Logan by the way."

"Shut up. Let's go. Also, no killing," Wade tells him sternly.

"These people are monsters kid, but I'm not going to make any promises. I'll try not to kill anyone," Logan tells him.

A short while later Wade and Logan arrive at the location Logan learned about yesterday. "Seriously?" Wade asks looking at Logan.

"I told you it was a place you would look more naturally in," Logan tells him.

"Dude it's a Paintball field, most people wouldn't get a second glance here. That's twice as true for an ex-military looking guy like you!" Wade tells him angrily. "Anyway where to now?"

"Oh is that right? Relax kid, I knew you looking into this too and after hearing why I decided to let you help. That's all now let's go," Logan tells with a smirk.

"I don't like being played Logan," Wade says following him closely. "Who are we here to see anyway?"

"The owner of this place is a contact for the Facility. He looks for mutant kids that would be easy targets and passes off the info for big payouts. He's probably not the only one around here that does this either," Logan says.

"Disgusting pieces of shit," Wade says.

"Yeah but what's worse is that the people and community around here doesn't do anything to stop it. I've heard that you are at least trying, so at least there is someone helping kid," Logan says.

"I try. The Atlanta Saints are also helping, but they aren't focusing on just mutants. It's more of all human trafficking," Wade says casually.

Wade and Logan come up to an office in the building. "Okay kid, wait out here. Don't worry I won't hurt him too much. I'll just get the info we need and we can move on," Logan tells Wade and enters the office. Wade can hear a struggle coming from in the room. Three or four people fighting then talking, well more like threatening really, then frantic answers. A few seconds later Logan exits the room. "Let's go kid."

"Wait really? Why did you ask me to come along?" Wade asks as he hurriedly catches back up to Logan.

"Because I wanted to go right to the next step, but that's going to be hard. We need to get a plane. The base is in Texas," Logan says.

"You have no idea how rich I am do you?" Wade asks him pulling out his cell phone and calls a contact. "Yeah Henry, I need some help. Can you please get the plane and meet us at an a small airfield in the area? Please make it discrete and send me the location of the strip."

"Are you serious kid? You have your own plane and pilot? Someone had a hard life growing up," Logan says with a smirk.

After a few minutes Wade gets a text from Henry with an address of a nearby airfield. Wade and Logan ride there on Logan's motorcycle, which is very uncomfortable for Wade as he dislikes motorcycles in general. It only takes them about fifteen minutes to get to the very run down and seemingly abandoned airfield. They get off the motorcycle and go into an old hanger to wait.

"So kid, what can you do?" Logan asks.

"Didn't you do your research?" Wade asks tiredly.

"Yeah I did, but I doubt you have shown everything you can do yet. If I'm going to go into a fight with ya I'd rather know what you can do. So I'll ask again, what can you do?" Logan asks again sternly and with a look in his eyes that makes Wade jump a little.

"Fine, my powers are all magic based. I feed magic into my sword, Olihandrew, which allows me to send the magic outwardly in the form of a few things, like a sonic blast, wide area blast of magical energy, turning my blade into a psionic form, surrounding the blade in a kinetic barrier that sends the energy directly into the target at the point of impact, so basically a dull bladed strike with extra power behind it, and of course I'm a master with bladed weapons, but I prefer a sword. I will likely be able to adapt more powers into Olihandrew eventually, but my soulforge hasn't matured yet. Beyond that my awakening also gave me perfect eyesight, and my shroud. I also gained a slight boost in my physical characteristics, but nothing major. My shroud is a protective barrier, but comes in to layers. The first layer is my armor that you saw me in and the second layer is a barrier that, when activated, is an outward barrier that protects me like a force field. I can manipulate the second layer, but I tend to not use it as it is tiring to use. On top of that I have the ability to close short distances at an insane speed and my max cruising speed is about Mach 2.5. I also have a genius level intelligence, but my specialties are strategy, tactics, and investigation. If I knew any spells I guess I could use those too, but I don't," Wade explains.

"Kid you just gave me your entire resume. You should be more careful in the future. That said, what's a soulforge?" Logan tells Wade.

"It's okay, I can trust you. I can tell that you generally care about Laura despite the fact that most people would consider you an ass. I did some research on you last night as well. Normally when you get involved people end up dying, but after spending a little time with you I don't think you enjoy it. I see you more of a soldier in a war that kills to protect or because it's the right choice at the time. Also, it's not easy to explain what a soulforge is. Just think of it as a generator for magical power that I use to power my abilities," Wade tells Logan.

After about thirty more minutes Henry's plane lands at the airfield and he gets out of the plane. "Hey boss, sorry it took so long, I've got everything cleared we should be able to take off and land at the nearest airfield to your location in Texas, but I'm not sure why you want to go there. There isn't a lot out there, but whatever I'll fly you and your friend wherever," Henry tells them.

"Good bub," Logan says taking a bag off his motorcycle then he walks into the plane and sits down followed by Wade. "Cozy plane kid."

"Henry, please make sure we make the best time possible. We have an appointment that I don't want to miss," Wade tells him.

"Understood sir," Henry says respectfully and goes into the cockpit to start the takeoff procedures.

"Loyal guy, most people that show that kind of respect wouldn't break air traffic laws so casually," Logan says taking a beer out of his bag and opening it.

Awhile later, the plane lands at a small Texan airfield where an old truck is parked. Henry explains that the truck is for them and that the keys are in the ignition. Logan drives while Wade takes shotgun.

"Kid, just be careful. These guys won't hesitate to kill you. Don't drop your guard," Logan tells Wade with a serious tone.

"I'll be fine, so don't worry about me. Just try not to smash the computers before I get a chance to access them," Wade tells Logan leaning up against the passenger side window.

It takes Wade and Logan about an hour to get near the location of the Facility base. Logan takes out his costume and puts it on while Wade's body is covered by a red light and his costume is on. After a short conversion about how to get to the base they head out together taking it slow. They run across a few cameras and sensors that they are able to avoid fairly easy. They eventually find an entrance that isn't guarded and enter the base.

"Alright kid, what do you want to do?" Logan asks.

"Well ideally we should try to find a master terminal with access to all files on the base in terms of what projects they are operating as well as freeing any mutants they have here for experimentation," Crimson Knight says.

"Alright after you kid," Logan says.

They sneak through the facility without too much trouble. They find multiple rooms dedicated to creating living weapons with mutant DNA, but no living or dead mutant or human test subjects until they enter one particular room and Crimson Knight is horrified at the sight. There are serval tables with mutilated mutants lying on tables.

Logan growls and pops his claws. "These bastards went too far here!"

"Logan…I've changed my mind. I'm trashing the place and I'm going to be these people's worst nightmare from today onward," Crimson Knight tells him and walks over to a computer terminal and starts typing on it. It only takes a few moments for him to find the area for active experimentations are conducted. "Alright let's go shut them down. It won't take them long to realize I hacked that terminal." He tells Logan and draws his sword.

 _*sniff, sniff*_ "I think they already know kid. Five heavily armed guys with some big guns outside," Logan tells him pointing at the door.

"Yeah, I'll handle that," Crimson Knight tells Logan walking toward the door with Olihandrew's blade glowing blue. As soon as the door starts to slide open Crimson Knight swings his sword sending a large wave of blue energy right into the door way hitting all five men on the other side and destroying the door.

"Damn kid, that's a pretty powerful blast. You may want to be careful or you may end up killing someone," Logan says sarcastically with a smirk.

"I can't control the amount of magic I put into and release from the blast, so I don't kill anyone or I could wipe out an entire town with it," Crimson Knight explains. "As long as I keep myself in check I can prevent most casualties, well from my side anyway."

Crimson Knight and Logan race to the active experiment wing while fighting guards along the way. Crimson Knight sees what they are trying to do, buy time. Are they evacuating? Destroying data? Either way, they need to pick up the pace. After a short fight with the last few guards and some automated defenses Crimson Knight and Logan make it to the active experimentation wing.

"Well this is a surprise, Weapon X welcome to the new Weapon Plus Program!" a voice rings from the walls. "Unfortunately, I doubt we have the capability to capture you and your friend, but at least we can get some good data out of this failed experiment." The voice says as a large abomination, in a vaguely humanoid form, bursts through the nearby wall and into the same hallway as Crimson Knight and Logan. A loud roar comes from the creature and an energy blast comes from the creature's hand and hits Logan, sending him flying backwards into a wall.

Crimson Knight takes action immediately and Blitzes on top of the creature's shoulder and stabs Olihandrew deep into its flesh. The creature let's out a scream of pain as it tries to shake Crimson Knight off of it. The creature grabs Crimson Knight with its other arm and slams him full force into the ground cracking the floor. The creature stomps on Crimson once and gets ready to do it again when Logan drives into its chest and starts slashing at it with loud grunts and roars.

Crimson Knight slowly gets to his feet. "Damnit, that hurt," he says in pain holding his side. He holds his hand out to Olihandrew, still stuck in the creature, and it dematerializes into light and flies toward his hand and reforms in his hand. He jumps at the creature with his blade glowing yellow and he brings the sword down onto the creature with all of his strength causing a lot of damage to the creature's flesh.

"Good job kid! Keep it up!" Logan yells still slashing and cutting the creature.

The creature swings its arms wildly and hits Logan and Crimson Knight knocking them back a little before smashing its arms into the ground creating a shockwave to pushes Crimson Knight into a wall while Logan is able to manage standing. The creature then fires a large energy blast from its mouth at Crimson Knight destroying the wall.

"Kid!" Logan yells toward Crimson Knight then charges the creature using his claws to climb up to its head and tries to stab it but is knocked away before he is able to connect. Logan lands on the ground and charges back in slashing and cutting at the creature.

A blue wave of energy comes from the hole in the wall Crimson Knight was knocked through striking the creature. Crimson Knight stumbles out of the room, through the hole in the wall, holding his side with blood flowing freely from beneath his hand. His eyes are filled with pain and looked drained. "I need to end this now while I can," he thinks to himself and Blitzes over to the creature. He raises his sword over his head and it starts to glow a blinding dark red. He slams the sword down into the creature unleashing a large explosive wave at the point of impact outward. This energy wave tears through the creature's body and all that is left of the creature is a bloody husk.

"Damn kid, you had that kind of power all this time?" Logan asks.

"It's not something I enjoy unleashing. I don't have any real control over it yet," Crimson Knight explains breathing heavily holding his side. "Let's see if they left anything usefully here."

"Hang on kid. You need to treat that injury or you're going to bleed out," Logan tells Crimson Knight pointing at the wound.

"Fine, then we take the hard drives from their computers and we go home," Crimson Knight agrees.

After treating Crimson Knight's injuries the two start looking around the facility pulling out hard drives from computers and taking physical files they find before setting explosives Logan had found, in the armory, around the facility. After they set the timer they leave the facility and start heading back to the truck.

**A few hours later**

Wade comes into his house late at 3:00 AM, he manages to just make it to his room before clasping on the floor with a puddle of blood forming on the floor from his side. Wade tries to get up, but finds his body is not moving at all. "Not good." He tells himself. The last thing he sees in his mind before the darkness fully sets in is Laura and Cassandra.

Wade feels pressure clasping his left hand. "What is that?" he asks himself as he slowly regains consciousness. When he comes too he sees Cassandra's head laying on the edge of his bed holding his hand. Wade looks around and sees it's his room and he is now in his bed. She must have found him. "Shit! Did she call someone? How am I going to explain this?" he thinks to himself. He pokes Cassandra's head. She stirs a bit and her head lifts up.

"Wade! You're awake! You have no idea how worried I was about you!" she shouts at him. "I was about to call our doctor when you didn't improve after the first day, but then you started to get better! Your wounds closed up on the second day, but you didn't wake up."

"My wounds closed up? How long have I been out Cass?" Wade asks as he sits up in the bed with a good amount of pain coursing through his body.

"Yeah they just started healing before my eyes. Wade are you a mutant?" Cassandra asks.

"No I'm not Cass. I promise I'll explain later. How long have I been out?" Wade asks with a bit of a sigh.

"This is the fourth day. I'm just glad you are okay," She leans in and hugs him and Wade hugs back. "You don't have to tell me what's going on if you don't want to, but if you want help I'm here."

"Cass, I'm Crimson Knight, I got these injuries hunting the people that are after Laura. They had this monster in their base they unleased on me and, uh, a friend that was also looking for Laura. We beat the damn but it got a few good shots on us. The guy, Logan, told me about a safe haven for mutants and I promised that if I found Laura I would take her there. I think they'd be able to help her there," he tells her as leans back and exhales.

"Wade I know you love Laura, but you are going way too far with this. You nearly died. I really liked Laura too Wade but is it worth dying for?" Cassandra asks.

"Cass, yeah it's completely worth it. We've had an easy life. Ever since she was born she was treated like a tool. Only her sensei and mother treated her like a human being and she was forced to kill them both. She had to leave her aunt and cousin to keep them safe, so yes it's worth dying to free her from being hunted even if it's just for a moment," Wade tells her.

"I…I didn't know that. She told you that?" She asks.

"No, I found out about it through info brokers, files, and some facility agents I managed to track down. I have a lot of files and hard drives to sort through. I could use your help Cass," Wade tells her.

"Alright I'll help you with the hard drives, but I have a condition. We are partners in this. I'll support you as your tech guru from now on," Cassandra demands.

"Agreed, but you aren't going out in the field with me. As you can see it's dangerous," Wade agrees with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3: Origins

Chapter 3: Origins

Short chapter, but chapter 4 should be longer and I may break it up into two chapters.

**Seven months later**

Wade has been active for a year and a half now and with the help of his sister, Cassandra, he has managed to destroy four of the Facility's bases and be a major pain in their ass. He has also improved on the control of his powers. Now he can run at about Mach three and has much better control over the powers he channels through Olihandrew. He was even taught a few spells by Dr. Strange, not many, but enough to be dangerous. Wade has graduated early, so he can spend more time as Crimson Knight and getting ready to take over as CEO of Prometheus when he turns nineteen. Wade finds himself spending more and more of his time as a national scale hero now that the Atlanta Saints have Atlanta pretty much handled without him. Due to acting on the national scale more and more often Crimson Knight has become quite popular and even has a large fan following across the US and Canada. Even his mutantism speeches are quiet popular even though the message isn't having the effect he had hoped it would on the public as a whole. During this time he has teamed up with the Avengers a few times and even the X-Men once. Wade is currently in LA wrapping up an investigation involving AIM when his cell phone rings.

Wade looks at the screen and sees its Cassandra and answers. "Hey Cass, what's up?"

"Hey Wade, you may want to come home. Beth is here and she has something she wants to talk to you about," Cassandra tells him.

"Our cousin, Beth, okay did she say what she wants to talk about?" Wade asks curiously.

"Yeah Wade, she's a mutant and with you being a supporter of mutant rights and all. I think she wants to just talk it out. Hell, just being a normal kid is hard and now she is a mutant too," Cassandra tells him.

Wade takes a turn into an alley and when he is sure no one sees him he starts running home with his Blitz ability. It doesn't take long for him to get back to where he parked his car and drive the rest of the way home to maintain his cover with his parents and finishes off forging the flight logs and uploading them to the TSA servers. After pulling into the drive way he notices that his parents are not home at the moment. Wade goes into the house and sees no one there, so he heads into his training studio in the backyard. Beth and Cassandra are both there sitting on the floor talking. Beth, a fourteen year old girl with brown hair and green eyes, has a very frantic look about her.

"Hey yall," Wade says with a wave and smile.

"Wade, that was fast. Cassie just called you like an hour ago," Beth says.

"Yeah, well it sounded important, so I wanted to make sure I got here quickly," Wade says and sits down next to the girls. "How long have you known you were a mutant Beth?"

"About a week now, I'm so terrified that if Mimi or anyone else finds out they'll hate me." Beth says reluctantly. "What do you think I should do?"

"Beth I hate to say it, but that may very well happen. It's not unheard of for friends and family to reject someone after coming out as a mutant, but that doesn't mean they will. If they do you are free to stay here. What gift did you get Beth?" Wade asks her.

"More like a curse, but," Beth says as she lifts her hand toward the weights in the corner and they start to levitate before crashing back into the ground. "I can do that to all kinds of things, but I can't control it for very long."

"So you're a telekinetic? Nice, I think I can help you learn how to control it enough for to manage it in everyday life, but that's about it. If you want to master it I can introduce you to some friends, but learning the baseline control is the first step," Wade explains to her.

"How can you teach me how to control it? It seems for far out of reach right now. You should see what I did to my room," Beth asks.

"Meditation should help and martial arts should help maintain focus. I was kind of the opposite from you. I was trained before my powers developed, but maintaining my training has helped me continue to develop them and learn a whole new level of control," Wade tells her with a smile.

"Wait you have powers?" Beth asks surprised.

"Yes, I'm Crimson Knight, now you and Cass are two of a very small group of people that know this secret," Wade tells her.

Over the next two months Wade teaches Beth meditation techniques and martial arts to help her learn how to control her powers. She did come out to her family and, unfortunately, they disowned her and she has moved in with Wade and his family, knowing she was a mutant of course. Even with the training she has little to no control of her telekinetic powers. They have been training in bunker Wade had built to be able to withstand all but the most powerful super beings on the planet. This is where he does most of his training and testing his powers, so it is a perfect place to train Beth and her new powers.

"Hey Wade, why don't we spar and go all out!? I want to see how well I'd do against you," Beth says with a smile.

"How about this, you score two points on me using everything you have and I'll start using my powers. It's a point if my shoulder, knee, or head hits the floor. This is exactly how my master handled this when I pushed for him to fight me all out as well," Wade tells her and walks over to the wall and picks up a bladeless sword to use in the fight.

"Okay, but I won't be holding back," Beth tells him with a smile and her powers flair up as a green aura around her.

Wade readies the sword to fight. Beth fires a telekinetic blast at Wade, which he jumps out of the way of. Beth grabs Wade in the air with her powers. "Smart," Wade tells her reaching into his pocket. He pulls out a small metal ball and throws it at Beth's face. As she catches it she loses focus on Wade and he charges her. Beth pushes the ball right back at Wade, but its small and he easily dodges it. Wade swings the sword at Beth, but she puts up a telekinetic shield to stop Wade's attack. When the sword hits the shield and it stops, Wade spins and sweeps her legs out from under her with a kick, causing her to fall to the ground.

Beth stands up quickly and lifts some objects from around the room with her powers and throws them at Wade. Wade starts dodging them as they come at him jumping and weaving through getting farther away from Beth to avoid getting hit. Wade sees an opening and charges her and hits her with the pummel of the sword.

Beth grabs her face, now with a bloody nose, and then brings her hands to her side with an angry look on her face. "DAMNIT! WHY CAN'T I HIT YOU!?" she screams and pushes both her hands toward Wade sending a huge wave of telekinetic energy at him. Wade instinctively jumps back to avoid the physical strike, but is hit by the wave sending him and everything else in front of Beth flying. Wade manages to flip and land on his feet by bracing himself with both hands. He skids pretty far on the ground before he stops, but he was clearly damaged by the sheer force of the blast. Wade's shirt is tore up a bit and his arms and face is dripping with blood.

"Oh god! Are you okay Wade?" Beth says running over to him.

"Yeah, I think that's a point," Wade tells her with a chuckle. "So that was unexpected. You might be the second strongest telekinetic I've seen. I think I need to introduce you to some people."

"Of course I am. I'm awesome remember?" Beth says with a smile. "But are you okay? Oh and are you ready to fight me seriously now?"

"There was a reason I didn't use my powers Beth. You saw how I was avoiding your attacks and made you drop me by throwing a small metal ball at you?" Wade asks Beth as he sits down on the floor.

"Yeah I saw it, what about it?" Beth asks sitting down as well.

"Master Osen told me this while I was training Beth, "Using your powers is fine, but don't ever think that your powers make you stronger than you are without them." Then he beat my ass as I used my powers against him while he wasn't using his. I can still see him standing there telling that. He is everything I inspire to be," Wade tells her. "He was the one that saw I had the potential of developing a soulforge and decided to train me. Of course I wanted the life as a hero with or without powers, so most of my training came before my powers even developed. Starting that kind of training at eight wasn't easy and the cost of having a soulforge is a pain in the ass sometimes, but I can live with it and the benefits far outweigh the price I have paid for it." He tells her with a smile

"So you trained with him for seven years and he taught you all of this?" Beth asks.

"Yeah, he taught me strategy, tactics, to many swordsmanship and martial arts styles to count, critical thinking and problem solving skills, the Uberman sleep schedule, deduction and crime scene investigation, and a few other things plus what I learned on my own," Wade tells her. "I owe him so much. I have very few regrets so far in my life."

"You know you aren't old at all right?" Beth tells him.

"I know, let's get cleaned up then get something to eat," Wade tells her.

"Okie dokie," Beth says hopping to her feet.

"You are way to chipper you know that?" Wade says getting up and dusting himself off.

"What? I love my life," Beth says with a smile. "And who are the people you want me to meet?"

"The X-Men, or more accurately the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. They'll be opening their doors in a few weeks. I think it would be a good place for you to learn about your new abilities," Wade tells her. "I'd like to take you their tomorrow to meet the new headmaster and headmistresses."

"Alright, sounds fun," Beth says.

The next day Wade uses his blitz ability to get himself and Beth to the Xavier Institute. The mansion is still under construction from the destruction caused by the attack led by Magneto, in the guise of Xorn, and his Brotherhood.

"Wow, this place is so cool," Beth says looking around at the school.

"Yeah, a lot of these students have nowhere else to go, this place is the only home they have now," Wade tells her. "Let's find Scott or Emma. They'll be inside the school. It looks like most of school is complete."

"Okay, let's go," Beth says.

Wade and Beth enter the mansion and see Scott Summers, Cyclops, talking to Henry "Hank" McCoy. Both turn and see Wade and Beth enter the mansion. Hank and Scott both walk over to greet them.

"Wade it's good to see you again," Scott says extending his hand.

"Likewise Scott," Wade says shaking his hand. "This is Beth, my cousin, I told you about. I'm hoping you can help her."

"Ummm hello, my name is Beth Burgess it's nice to meet you," Beth says and extends her hand nervously glancing over at the big blue and furry cat-like man.

"It's nice to meet you. I am Scott Summers and this is Dr. Hank McCoy, though you may know us better as Cyclops and Beast. I believe you are a telekinetic?" Scott says and shakes her hand.

"Truly a pleasure Beth," Hank says and shakes Beth's hand after Scott.

"Yes, I've only known that I was a mutant for a few months. I don't have too much control over it," Beth tells him.

"I think we can help you with that. We have another telekinetic student starting here as well. We'll need to see the limits of your powers first," Scott tells her.

"Um okay, where too?" Beth asks.

"The Danger Room," Hank says with a smile.

Wade and Beth follow Hank and Scott as the led them downstairs into the underground base of the X-Men and to the Danger Room itself. Beth enters the actual room while Wade, Scott, and Hank go to observation room above.

"Ms. Burgess, we will be monitoring the entire situation from here in case of an emergency, but please show us what you are capable of. We are going to raise the difficulty incrementally," Hank tells her over the speakers.

"Okay," Beth says as the first training target spawns holographically and it opens a canon from one of its arms. Beth throws a telekinetic blast at the target sending it flying into a wall. Three more spawn and one of them charges her with sword arms while the other two fire energy blasts at her. Beth flies up in the air and picks up the two ranged targets telekinetically. She smashes the two together and sends the remains into the last target with the sword arms. Beth continues fighting targets with increasing difficulty until it is her and a very heavily armed robot about ten feet tall with more firepower than a tank. It fires a large energy canon rapidly at her. Beth puts up a barrier to stop the blasts, but as each one hits it seems as though the barrier will break with the next hit, but she holds it together. She screams and falls to a knee. Hank goes to shut down the program, but the entire danger room explodes in a green flash. When Scott and Hank go down into the Danger Room, the entire room is trashed and offline. Beth is on the floor, asleep.

Wade follows Scott and Hank into the Danger Room. "So now you see what she is capable of. Can you help her? I have no idea how to help her control this. None of my mental training can help her with this."

"Yes I think we can," Scott tells him. "We have another very powerful telekinetic here. He has mental barriers in place to limit how much power he outputs. I think we'll need to put those safeguards on her too," Scott says looking around at the Danger Room.

"Thank you Scott," Wade tells him. "Please look after her. I wonder if she'll want to be an X-Man?" He asks smirking.

"I'll take care of her I promise and if she wants to be an X-Man that'll be entirely up to her," Scott says picking Beth up.

They go to the medical room where Hank and Wade stay behind to look after Beth, while Scott leaves to attend other business. Wade and Hank talk about the last time they worked together, back before Xorn trashed the school was trashed and killed Jean Grey-Summers. Beth wakes up after about two hours and finds Wade seemingly enjoying a conversation with Hank.

"That's strange, you actually seem like you are having fun Wade," Beth says drowsily.

"I enjoy conversation sometimes, beside Hank is a rare individual," Wade tells her with a smile.

"Did I pass?" Beth asks sitting up.

"My dear, it was never a test you could fell, but you did destroy the Danger Room, so you did exceed expectations," Hank says. "Now would you like anything? A drink perhaps?"

"No thank you," Beth says. "When is orientation?"

"Orientation is in three weeks my dear and Emma and Scott are both forming a team of students this year. Those teams will be confirmed in about three months," Hank tells Beth.

"Good then I have time to make a good impression and get on one of those teams!"

"Do whatever you think is best Beth. I'll support you whatever way you choose to go," Wade tells her. "Not that you need it. You'll be fine without it."


	4. Chapter 4: No More Mutants

Chapter 4:

"No More Mutants"

**Six Months Later**

The last six months has been relatively uneventful for Wade, but uneventful for a superhero is very different than a normal person, supervillain battles, alien invasions, the occasional team up, but no huge life changing events for him at least. The Avenger's broke up just to be reformed with a whole new rooster including Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine to mention a few. Wade turned down an offer from Captain America to join the New Avengers. Wade reluctantly joined as a reserve member of the Avengers, but was out right against joining any team as a full time member at this time

Wade slowly wakes, he doesn't even remember going to sleep last night, but has a splitting headache, by far the worst of his life. From the pillow he looks around the room with his eyes and doesn't recognize the room or anything in it. "Where the hell am I?" he asks himself. He feels something on his chest and pulls it out of the covers to see it's a hand. He turns over and gently pulls the covers down. He almost jumps out of the bed when he sees Laura lying there. "Okay I must be dead or dreaming. A very vivid dream." Then his headache gets worse and worse and he starts seeing memories of events that never happened, a life he never lived or did he? "What's going on?" He tries to sort through the memories, both his lives. What happened and when. It takes about fifteen minutes or so before he is able to sort both sets of memories out. This world doesn't add up. Mutants are the dominate species on the planet. Superheroes are treated as equals to mutants. In this world he is treated as a celebrity with his company, Prometheus, still being hailed as one of the largest companies in the world. He vividly remembers proposing to Laura just a week ago. He is truly happy here, but questions like "is any of this real?" occupy his mind, so much so he doesn't even realize Laura has started moving.

Laura starts to wake up and looks up at Wade. "Hey, you're up early," Laura says drowsily. "Good morning." she says with a smile and leans toward Wade.

"Yeah I couldn't help but to wake up early to watch you sleep," Wade tells her flirtatiously. He remembers that this Laura is very similar to the Laura he knew, but also vastly different. She is still very intelligent and a great fighter, but without the pain of having spent most of her life in the care of the Facility and killing her mother.

"Is that so? Maybe you should actually spend more time in bed and less out on patrol then," Laura tells him. She gets out of bed and gets dressed.

Wade can't help but stare at her as she gets dress and think about how happy she is here living with her mother, aunt and cousin. Wade has been living here with them for the past week or so since proposing to her. They are living in San Francisco and Wade, Megan, and Laura all go to the same school together. Wade has a great relationship with Laura's family here, but the thing that is getting to Wade is how wrong all this feels. Wade also gets out of bed and get dressed as well and both walk out of the room.

A few hours past and Wade spends time with Laura and her family. Things are happy here, but it's all a lie, a fabrication, a sick joke and someone is going to pay for it. For now however he will enjoy the moment. If his memories are correct Laura and Megan should be leaving for Europe for a short vacation and he is staying behind. This is when he'll start investigating what the hell happened here.

Laura gives Wade a quick good-bye kiss on the check before she and Megan leave for their trip. After they leave Wade blitzes to New York to try and find anyone else that has memories of the world before whatever caused this change. Once he arrives in New York, Wade starts looking for any sign of normalcy, but finds none. Fortunately, Wade owns a home in upstate New York here. After looking all over the city for the day he retreats here for the night of contemplation. If he can't fix this could he actually live in this world knowing what he knows? The next day he decides to go to Stark Tower to see he could speak to Tony about his or get a more scientific opinion on what had happened here. As he walks into the building he sees Logan talking to the attendant.

"Logan what are you doing here?" Wade asks walking up to him. Logan turns around violently. "Are you alright?"

"That's far enough James!" a voice yells from the doorway.

"What?" Logan turns to the voice to see Mystique, Rouge, Nightcrawler, Jessica Drew, and Toad

"James we here to take you back don't resist," Jessica Drew tells him.

Wade sees it, Logan remembers. "Logan RUN!" Wade screams as Olihandrew appears in his right hand and he sends a large wave of blue energy toward the group that just demanded Logan's surrender enveloping them. With that Logan takes off and Wade follows quickly after him. "Tell me why I just hit the Red Guard with a Nova Logan."

"This world aint right kid…" Logan starts.

"Everything is just wrong," Wade finishes.

"You too? How come we still remember, but no one else does?" Logan asks as they continue to run.

"No idea. I woke up yesterday morning next to Laura, but I can't remember going to sleep the night before, but I can tell you what I had for lunch last Monday in this world and the real world," wade tells him.

"Wait so…" Logan starts as a cloaked figure appears in front of them and envelopes them with their cloak.

Wade and Logan find themselves in a dark room surrounded by people that include Cloak, Luke Cage, and Hawkeye.

"Wolverine you can either cut the tracker out of your neck yourself or I can do it for," Hawkeye tells Logan pulling back an arrow and aiming it at Logan.

"Okay, everyone calm down," Wade says trying to calm Hawkeye down.

"If you were going to remove the tracker you should have done it before bringing us here!" Logan yells at them.

Hawkeye looses his arrow and it cuts through Logan's neck destroying the tracker. "There, my way it is," Hawkeye says.

The roof suddenly collapses and two Sentinels reach into the building. Everything goes black for Wade and then he, Logan, Luke, Hawkeye, a little girl, Danny Rand, Marc Spector and a few others are in an empty Kingpin's office. "I wasn't able to get everyone," Cloak says sadly.

"Someone care to explain?" Wade asks.

"A few days ago this girl came up to me and told me this world was wrong and I suddenly started seeing flashes of memories of another world," Luke Cage says presenting a small child.

Logan walks up to her and kneels looking her in the eyes with a smile. "Hey kid, can you tell what I am thinking?" He asks nicely.

"Wha..? No I can't," She says hesitantly.

"Okay can you tell me your name and what you know?" Logan asks.

"My name is Layla Miller and I was with my living in Hell's Kitchen until two days ago then my parents were alive again, but the world was just wrong. I thought I was going crazy," Layla tells him.

"You aren't crazy, well unless me and the boy scout over there are crazy too," Logan says pointing to Wade.

"What's going on then?" She asks.

"I have an idea, Magnus and his children, Wanda," Logan starts but is interrupted.

"The human one?" Hawkeye says.

"Human?" Logan asks.

"Yeah here she was adopted by Magneto and raised as an equal to his mutant children Logan. She is used here to show that humans and mutants are equal, at least on paper," Wade adds. "But in our world she is a mutant, a very powerful one with reality warping powers."

"She did this, her father, Magnus, asked or forced her too," Logan tells the room and starts explaining Wanda's slow decent into madness and loss grip on reality, which ended up killing fellow Avenger members in the real world including Hawkeye. Danny Rand, the Ironfist, and Marc Spector, Moon Knight

"But why do this?" Luke Cage asks.

"We got what we wanted most in this world to "buy" our compliance," Wade says with a sigh.

"Yeah we got what we wanted so _**he**_ could get what he wanted and we wouldn't question it," Logan tells them.

"But how would he even know what we wanted?" Danny asks.

"Charles," Logan says. "Any of you have a phonebook?"

The team spends the next few hours awakening other superheroes to the sick joke that the world has become, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, She-Hulk, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, Tony Stark and a few others. They found an aged Steve Rogers as his wish was to live out his life after the end of World War II. Most of the heroes have now their costumes on and prepare to take the fight to Magneto.

"Now that we have enough people we can start making a plan," Wade says now in his costume. The door to the office explodes and the Red Guard led by Jessica Drew charge into the room. A few heroes, including Wade, jump in to engage The Red Guard.

Rouge manages to grab for Layla. "Got ya darling," she says pulling her hair and grabbing her by the throat. During Layla's struggle Rouge and her made skin contact and Rouge absorbs her power to see the true world and it affects to the other Red Guard showing them the truth of this world.

"What the hell is goin on?" Rouge asks. "What are ya girl? You aint no mutant." She says.

"We good? Cause I think I know how we can get to Genosha," Wade tells everyone.

"How's that kid?" Logan asks.

"The SHIELD Helicarrier, Emma, do you think you could use your charming personality and ask them to take us there?" Wade asks her.

"Of course very few people can say no to my requests," Emma answers smugly.

"Wait, I have something to ask before we do this. Are we even sure we can fix this? If so how?" Spider-Man asks everyone.

"Well we need to distract Magneto, find Charles Xavier, and Wanda," Wade tells everyone. "But I doubt we'll fix everything. We have to be careful with this or Wanda could just reset everything again or just wipe us out of existence."

"So three teams then, the bulk of our forces will fight Magneto and his guard as a distraction, Strange will led a small team to deal with Wanda, and Cloak will take a team to find Charles," Logan says.

"Good plan, let's get this started then," Wade tells everyone.

"Wait one last thing," Scott Summers says. "I have worked my life to be the one to always take the high road no matter the cost. We are all heroes and we have a moral compass that demands we hold back. I don't know if we can do that this time, if there is any part of you that is holding don't, not this time. We need to end this permanently."

Wade looks at Scott. "Are you saying we kill Magneto or Wanda? What if Magneto isn't behind this? Wanda is mentally unwell. Should we just kill her because of what her powers COULD do? Scott I have trusted you to take care of my cousin at your school and I have never regretted it until this moment. If you want to take that jump go right ahead, but I will not hold anyone responsible for something that they have no control over. If I am ever in the position where I have to end a life to save many others I hope I make the right choice or I am able to find a third solution." Silence radiates through the room. Many see the point in both arguments and start to weight both options.

It takes the team several hours for the team to reach Genosha. Dr. Strange and Cloak teleport into the palace below while the main group attack The House of Magus and their Gala guests head on to cause as big of a distraction as possible. The guests include Namor, Ororo Munroe, Victor von Doom, and a few other guests. The heroes deal with mutant guards, Doombots, and Sentinels all while dealing with Magneto and Pietro.

Wade sees an opening to Magneto and blitzes through the crowd of people to get into striking distance of Magneto. Wade readies Olihandrew to launch a Nova at Magneto, but Magneto easily pulls the blade from his hand with his power over magnetism. This doesn't slow Wade down much as he rushes toward Magneto and when he is right up on him Olihandrew turns into light and it forms back in Wade's hand. The blade glows yellow and he swings it at Magneto hitting him in the stomach. When the blade makes contact it transfer kinetic energy right into Magneto and sends him into the air.

"Enough!" Magneto yells as he uses his powers to send metal toward the force invading his home. Magneto senses something wrong elsewhere in his palace and flies toward it abandoning the battle, but the heroes are outmatched fighting their former allies and enemies alike that have not been awoken as of yet.

"Everyone, we were wrong. Magneto wasn't behind this! It was Pietro! He thought we were going to kill Wanda to keep her from losing control of her power again. He convinced her that this was the best way for everyone and she changed the world to this. We have to capture Pietro!" Emma's voice sounds in everyone's mind.

Wade tries to follow Magneto as he flies to what appears to be a garden with a memorial. Wade Sees Cloak, Emma, Layla, and Magneto there. Magneto looks shocked as if awakening from a horrible dream.

"She show him the real world?" Wade asks Emma.

"Yes, he is trying to process everything," Emma answers.

"I never would have allowed this!" Magneto shouts. Pietro speeds into the garden and stops when he sees he is too late. "Pietro! What have you done!"

"Father they were going to kill her!? What would you have me do? You never cared for us and you were going to let her die!" Pietro screams at him. Large pieces of metal start flying toward Pietro.

"This was not the answer boy!" Magneto screams and sends another barrage of metal toward Pietro.

The metal is suddenly stopped and vaporized. Wanda appears next to the injured Pietro and heals him fully. "Father, you always loved your dream more than us. We were nothing to you. We're freaks...mutants and you choose this over us and you ruined us," Wanda says cradling Pietro and looking at Magneto, her father. "Daddy…No More Mutants." She says softly as everything is enveloped in white.

Everyone, thank you for reading up until this point and this is where the story starts deviating from the mainstream universe while large events and the like will still happen in this world it may happen a bit differently in this story and I plan to keep this going up until Civil War II. Crimson Knight/Wade Clemons will not take part in all events that occurs in the world, but may only hear about it from the news, other heroes or completely ignores the event outright. Although the time skips won't stop until after the conclusion of Secret Wars and the creation of All New Marvel (Earth-Prime)


	5. Chapter 5: Endangered

Chapter 5

Endangered

Wade sleeps, sitting, using a corner of a wall for support until he wakes up violently. He remembers everything that just happened over the past two days, the House of Magnus, his relationship with Laura, but when he looks at the date on his phone it's the right day, like the two days in the other world never happened. It did happen however he knows it especially when Steve Rogers contacts him stating that all heroes will be meeting at Stark Tower tonight to discuss "recent" events. "No more Mutants…" Wade says to himself. "Shit!" he says loudly as he stands up and his body is enveloped with a red glow before his costume appears on him. Then he is gone, running full speed to the Xavier Institute. Wade arrives at the school around noon to see it has devolved into chaos. Wade spots Hank McCoy and walks up to him.

"Hank, what's going on here?" Wade asks him.

"Wade, it is terrible most of the students have lost their powers and Emma says that the mutant population has been decimated. There are only about two hundred of us left worldwide. We are trying to manage the fallout now if you spare some time we could use the help," Hank tells him, knowing that Wade Clemons and Crimson Knight are the same person after their last team up along with most of the X-Men.

"Of course Hank, anything you need," Wade says as his costume fades away living him in his civilian clothes. Wade starts helping the X-Men deal the many problems around the Mansion until it is time to go to Stark Tower later in the evening.

At Stark Tower, many of the heroes that took part in the assault on Magneto in the other world have gathered in the main conference room and have already started talking about what happened. Surprisingly, many still remember the other world, but some don't.

"Wipe these memories from my mind!" Peter Parker demands. In the other he was married to Gwen Stacey and had a child together in the other world. Gwen was his first failure as a hero. "How and why do we even remember?"

"We can't do that and if I had to guess it was most likely a combination of Emma's mental protection and Dr. Strange's protection spell," Tony states.

"Yes, but how do we go about fixing this? The mutant population is gone less than two hundred are left and Wanda isn't one of them. There has to be a way to reverse this," Wade calmly says as Crimson Knight. "This was done by one of our own, regardless of her sanity. Is this even fixable?"

At this time a battered and exhausted Dr. Strange stumbles into the room. "I've failed my duty as Sorcerer Supreme. My duty is to prevent the use of magic to do something like this. Unfortunately, I have no idea on how to reverse this or if there is even a way to reverse it," Dr. Strange explains.

The heroes start discussing the long term ramifications of the decimated mutant population and the memories some of the heroes retained from the other world, but Wade takes something else away from this exchange. Heroes have no real oversite, SHIELD, HAMMER, SWORD, governments, and even heroes themselves. Who prevents heroes going rogue and how? He'll start studying heroes and villains alike just in case the heroes ever need to be neutralized. At least this way at least he may be able to prevent some things like this, maybe not many, but a few and that's enough for now.

After the meeting Wade heads back to the Xavier Institute, out of costume, as it is most people could find out that his cousin, Beth, is a student at the school. The school is surrounding by three large robots, Sentinels. These aren't the mutant hunting murder machines of the past, but manned suits operated by military personnel. Wade finds most of the students that retained their powers, gathered in the Living area watching the news and discussing the mutant decimation. Beth/Lady Maude, Nori Ashida/Surge, Megan Gwynn/Pixie, Santo Vaccarro/Rockslide (large rocklike body), Cessily Kincaid/Mercury (liquid metal body like the T-1000 in Terminator 2), David Alleyne/Prodigy, Sooraya Qadir/Dust, and a few others are all currently about what will happen to the students that lost their powers David, who lost his powers, included.

Wade stand in the doorway and knocks on the wall. "Hey guys, sorry I had to leave. How are yall holding up?" Wade asks them.

"Wade, glad you're back," Beth says walking up to him and gives him a hug. "I can't believe all this has happened or even how." She says looking into his eyes.

"Beth, I don't know what to say. I promise that if you need me I'll be here, no questions asked. I've got the okay from Scott and Emma to stay here for a little while and help out," Wade tells her.

"You know something don't you?" Beth whispers quietly. "They also have those manned Sentinels outside. They really picked literally the worst things to send here to "protect" us."

"David you know you are one of "them" now," Julian Keller/Hellion interrupts the conversation of the group with a smug smile.

Nori walks up to him and electricity starts coming from her hands "Shut up you idiot!" She yells.

"You wanna go little girl?" Julian yells as he starts to levitate himself and a glow of an emerald huge from his eyes and body appears.

Wade rushes over grabbing both Julian's and Nori's arm with his Crimson Shroud, a dark red magical barrier or field, wrapped around his hands. "That's…"

"Am I interrupting anything? No? Good," Logan says from the doorway with Laura standing next to him. "Everyone this is Laura Kinney. She's…uh…my sister. She was cloned from my DNA and…you know what doesn't matter. Yes she has claws and yes she could kill her, so don't give her a reason too. Consider yourselves introduced." He says and turns to walk away. "Oh and none of my business, but my money's on Nori." He says as he walks away.

"Laura…" Wade says slowly loosening his grip on Julian and Nori. Wade looks away from her remembering the other Laura.

Beth looks at Wade, then to Laura, then back to Wade. "So that's her?" Beth asks pointing at Laura who just looks away.

Laura looks up at Wade. "Wade what are you doing here?"

"Well Beth here is my cousin and with the recent turn of events I came here to see if she was okay," Wade explains. "You have no idea how good it is to see you." He tells her with a smile.

"Why did you look away then?" Laura asks as Julian storms out of the room.

"It's complicated, I'll tell you later. I also have a present for you but I don't have it with me and honestly I don't know if you'll kill me after I give it to you," Wade tells Laura with a chuckle to which she just stares at him.

Time passes and one hundred and elven of the depowered students volunteer to leave the school and the next day these depowered students are loading a bus on the Institute's grounds after being snuck out of the school through the old Morlock Tunnels. It is a time of a lot of emotions as for many of these students the they are leaving a home, lifelong friendships and people that really understood them. It's an eerily quiet and cold night as the students and former students say their good-byes. Wade is present as Crimson Knight and friend of the X-Men. Suddenly, an explosion rocks the campus from the area of the bus.

Wade rushes there with a few others to see the burning shells of the bus. They rush over to start crawling through the debris looking for survivors, but Wade already knows the likelihood of finding anyone is slim. After looking over the damage caused he determines it was a short range missile fired pretty close to the target. Wade looks up at the horizon and sees something before running off toward it. Logan and Laura see this and chase after Wade on Logan's motorcycle. "I need to calm down before I get there or I may run right into an ambush." Wade thinks to himself.

Moments later he arrives at the area he determines where the missile was fire. "Okay, time to find the launch spot and hopefully something I can use to find this bastard," Wade mutters to himself and starts looking around the area. He knows the shooter is long gone by now, but hopefully he left something behind he can use. "Where would I fire a portable surface to surface missile? At this range it would have to fire in an arc, so that limits the location a bit. How did they target the busses? It's too far to use laser sighting. Coordinates maybe? That has problems of its own but possible." He thinks as he walks around the area looking for the launch area. Then he sees scorching and walks over to it. After looking at the ground around the scorching he sees tire tracks from a car, one pair of footprints, and three holes in the ground. "One guy, a car, and the launcher was a tripod…" He says to himself investigating the holes in the ground, but stops when he hears someone behind him.

"Easy kid, it's just us" Logan says as he and Laura walk up and kneel down to look at the scene. Logan takes a few sniffs in the air. "Looks like he used something to mask his scent can't get a good read on him."

Laura does the same and just shakes her head. "Nothing," she says.

"I'll get the tire tracks ran, but I doubt it'll be very helpful, likely stolen, but I'll look into a portable missile launcher with a tripod base. It had to be a fairly small missile with a large explosive content," Wade tells them. "Let's head back and help with the recovery."

After an extensive cleanup the X-Men have recovered the bodies of all the dead and a few days later they hold a funeral for fifteen of the fallen whose families refused to accept their bodies. It is a time of great sadness for everyone. Throughout all the years and all the attacks never has it harmed the student body in such a way. This attack marks the highest causalities the Xavier Institute's student body has ever suffered even though the dead were former students. The fact that they were so vulnerable was the issue. Wade attends the funeral as Crimson Knight and feels so powerless, more so than he ever has in his whole life.

Later that night Wade, still in costume, sees Beth looking out a window on the second floor of the Institute. He walks up to her and puts his on her shoulder. "Sorry Beth, but I don't have any words of encouragement for you. I don't know what to do right now. Part of me wants to hunt the bastards down and kill them. The other part denies that idea outright, but can't come up with a better alternative."

"Why do people hate us so much?" Beth asks rubbing her eyes.

"I don't know. I wish I did. There are so many mutant hate groups in the world and unfortunately it's often the one thing that people of all races and religions can agree on. Mutant hate is global and I wish I could tell you why. It is more than just not understanding, hating, or fearing mutants," Wade explains to her. "Mutants aren't monsters, demons, or freaks. You're all human. Are you the next stage? Maybe, but you might not be. Humanity should have evolved past this, but clearly hasn't."

"Thanks, I think I needed to hear that," Beth says with a smile. "Do you think they'll come back?"

"I won't lie to you. Yes I do its common strategy when attacking an unpredictable or more powerful enemy. First you research your opponents, second demoralize them, cut off their supplies, or whittle them down with hit and run tactics, and third you attack them while they are licking their wounds," Wade answers her.

"What do we do?" Beth asks seriously.

"We prepare, the X-Men are preparing the best they can, but we can't prepare for everything…" Wade says as an explosion rocks the mansion again. Wade pulls Olihandrew out of its sheath. "Beth…"

"No I'm not hiding from this!" Beth tells him.

"Okay, I was going to say stay close and alert. I know you can take care of yourself, but stay focused and don't get….." Wade explains but is interrupted by two robed men bursting through the window. He quickly cuts their weapons in half and sends a kick into one of the men and hits the other in the back of the head with Olihandrew's hilt. "distracted. Now, as much as I hate to say it, we should split up, but he careful." He finishes picking up one of the destroyed weapons. "It looks like they are using anti-mutant weapons, so be extra careful because your powers may not be able to stop them."

"Okay, but you be careful as well," Beth tells Wade and runs off down the hall.

Wade runs off to the entrance of the mansion and sees that the doors have been blown away and a body outside in an abaya, a traditional Muslim dress for women. Wade rushes over to her and checks her pulse. "Still has a heartbeat good." Wade pulls the face cover off to see that it is Laura and not Sooraya. "Laura?" he says and her eyes open and she sits up.

"We should get going. I can smell at least thirty well-armed entered through the front," Laura states as she stands up and pulls of the rest of the abaya.

"You think you can track them easier than I can. Can you tell who the leader of these Purifiers are and lead us to him?" Wade asks.

 _*Sniff sniff*_ "I think so, follow me," Laura says and rushes into the mansion with Wade right on her heels.

It doesn't take them long to run into a room where an injured Emma and Julian, Nori, and a few other students are cornered by some of the Purifiers. Julian and Emma are wounded with three Purifiers clustered together holding machine guns aimed at them with a female Purifier holding a knife on the other side of the room. Laura sees this and jumps into the middle of the three Purifiers with the guns and kills them quickly with her claws in both her hands and feet. Wade blitzes past them and appears in front of the woman with the knife and cuts her hand off to prevent her from using her knife. After Wade punches her in the stomach with a strong left knocking her out, he then rips part of her robes to wrap the stub and ties it tightly to slow the bleeding. At about this time Beth/Lady Maude, Sooraya/Dust, wearing only her underwear, along with a few other students hurriedly enter the room.

"Laura, you are here," Sooraya/Dust states.

"Yes and I must apologize, but I believe Allah did not want you to die today," Laura tells Sooraya as she retracts her claws.

"Emma, Julian are you two okay?" Wade asks them.

"We'll live but I can't say the same for many of our students," Emma says holding her shoulder wound. "We need to a stop to this now. Students please follow me. Crimson Knight if you would accompany us I would appreciate it." Emma tells everyone.

Emma, the students, and Wade follow her out into the hall. Wade notices that Beth looks very concerned about something. "What happened?" Wade asks.

"I may have killed one of these guys. I threw him through three walls and out of the second story of the mansion. I was just so angry," Beth tells him hesitantly.

"These people don't deserve your remorse Beth. If I thought I could stop myself with just this scum I would kill them all, but I know if I cross that line I'll likely never be able to go back to being me a hero. That being said, I'm sure he'll live, but you likely broke every bone in his body," Wade reassures her. Wade, Laura and Emma suddenly stop the students and ready themselves for a fight.

"Ah I have found more demons, prepare to be cleansed! It is unfortunate that you have sided with such creatures Crimson Knight! God has shown me the danger of allowing you to live as well as the demons that were depowered. If I let you live the result will be the same albeit a slower death without the sympathy created by the depowered mutants," Reverend William Stryker proclaims walking around the corner with a large pinkish gauntlet on his right arm that pulsates power.

"God huh? I hate delusional psychopaths like you," Wade tells him. "You killed innocent children all for your own hatred. You are no prophet or savior. Surrender and you will be allowed to live, don't and I won't save you."

"All the good you do throughout your life cannot make up for the evil you preach for my child!" Stryker yells and readies to fire a blast at the heroes through his gauntlet.

Wade sighs and blitzes over to him cutting his arm and gauntlet off and then crunches as Laura charges into Stryker's chest with her claws. Laura retracts her claws and a dying Stryker falls to the ground. "I warned you. Laura, I hate that I'm glad you killed him. Sorry, guess I'm no better than he is," Wade says as he stands up.

"You are a very kind and caring man and makes you a far better man than him. You never asked me to kill him, he was a threat to us so I eliminated him," Laura explains to Wade.

"Maybe, but I still attacked knowing this is how you would react. Laura, I need to talk to you, but let's wait until tomorrow, I'm done with this day," Wade says and walks off, cleaning the blood off of Olihandrew then sheathing it.

The next day is full of mourning; the mutant population has been hit so hard over the last week and the few mutants left are starting to feel the pressure of being what could be the last mutants ever. Wade stands out on the porch of the Institute, looking out toward the horizon when Laura walks out of the mansion and joins him.

"I have something to tell you Laura," Wade tells her with a serious tone.

"Is it why you can't look at me for long?" Laura asks.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a long story, but recently I woke up on an alternate Earth that was like a dream," Wade explains to her. "In that world I woke up next to you. I still have the memories of that world and that Wade. The worst part of it is I remember your aunt, Cousin Megan, and your mother.

"I understand then. Was the Laura there like me?" Laura asks curiously.

"Yes, she was strong and intelligent, but she was rescued at a young age and grew up fairly normally. She was a normal girl in that world that was surrounded by a loving family. The best part is that the Wade of that world and I were almost identical in terms of personality the only difference was our history, but the choices he made I would have made," Wade explains. "Including loving you."

Laura looks at Wade. "That I don't understand. How could you even say you love someone like me?" Laura asks him.

"Because I don't see you the way most people do. You give yourself far too little credit. There isn't much about you I can find fault with. Yes you can kill people and you are really good at it. What of it? This is the question you need to find an answer to. Are you always going to kill? You can choose to leave that behind, stay as you are, or find another option. Laura, this place can be a good help to you if you let it," Wade tells her. "Here, I found her while I was looking for you." Wade tells her pulling a letter out of his pocket and handing it to her.

Laura opens the letter and starts reading it. It's from Megan and Laura looks right at Wade. "How did you find her?" Laura asks in a serious tone.

"Well I found that she was blogging about someone that saved her when she was younger that sounded a lot like you about a month ago. When I meet her she told know she was and how she knew you after I saved her from some Facility goons that also followed her trail." Wade tells her and he sees Laura tense up. "Don't worry Megan and your Aunt are both fine. I helped them get set up somewhere safe. I got them in contact with an old friend that will keep them safe and can cover their trail." Wade reassures Laura.

"Thank you, they would have been much safer if I never went there," Laura says.

"But not as complete. They both love and care about you Laura. You don't realize how important you are," Wade says and walks inside the mansion.


	6. Crimson Knight and the New X-Men

Chapter 6

Crimson Knight and the "New" X-Men

A few days later, Ms. Marvel comes to the Institute to explain that Joshua/Icarus was found dead with "NIMRC" written in blood near his body. Wade, in his normal clothes, and the remaining students have gathered in the living area of the mansion to talk about Stryker's attack and the information that Ms. Marvel brought to the X-Men while the X-Men are out on a mission. Scott/Cyclops told all the students to stay there no matter what happens and Wade stayed to help protect the students.

"What do you think NIMRC meant?" Nori/Surge asks the group.

"He was probably trying to write something, but died before he could finish," Wade answers.

David/Prodigy takes some time to think about the letters. "Nimrod. He wasn't able to finish the O or D," David tells the group.

"That makes sense," Wade says casually.

"How does that make sense?" Julian/Hellion asks loudly.

"Oh sorry I guess you don't know, Nimrod is a super sentinel from the future and Stryker's Gauntlet did look like Nimrod's arm from what I have seen of it in the records. Also, I think Cable recently fought a Nimrod and damaged it. That could have been it, thanks to the wonders of time travel," Wade explains to everyone.

"Wait if that's all there was why did Joshua try to warn us about it?" Julian/Hellion exclaims.

Wade sees a red light flashing in the corner of the room and walks over to it and sees that it is a PDA like device. When Wade picks it up a GPS target displays in Texas with an SOS message appears stating that Forge is in danger.

"What is it?" Nori/Surge asks Wade.

"It's an automated SOS from Forge, but it doesn't state what the issue is," Wade tells her and tosses the device to her.

"Well then we have to go help him. The X-Men are gone and we are the only ones that can help," Nori tells everyone and looks at Wade.

"Hey don't look at me; I'm just here your team leader. Of course if you go I'm coming along as well," Wade tells her as his costume appears on him.

"You're not going to try to stop us?" Nori/Surge asks him confused.

"I said I would help protect you, but I'm not your babysitter, hell we are the same age. As far as I am concerned we are equals," Wade tells her with a smirk.

"I didn't expect either of you to do something like this, I thought you both would be too scared," Julian/Hellion says in a smug tone as he stands up.

"Julian, why do you always have to be an ass?" Nori/Surge asks him. "Okay everyone you have five minutes then we head out. Meet in the hanger."

Many of the mutants head into the underground of the X-Mansion to where the X-Men hold all of their high tech gadgets, training rooms, ect to prepare to answers Forge's call to help. Wade heads straight to the hanger and preps the backup Blackbird for flight while the students get ready for combat. Beth/Lady Maude, in a greenish costume with "X's" on the shoulders, walks into the hanger as Wade exits the Blackbird.

"Wade, I'm kinda nervous about this. What if this is out of our League?" Beth/Lady Maude asks in a concerned tone.

"Maybe it is, but if you feel like that then don't go. Every hero goes through this at least once Beth and it is perfectly normal. Only one thing matters though, are you going to let your nerves or fear keep you from going out? No one will judge you if you choose to stay behind," Wade comforts his cousin.

"So you went through things like this? How did you get over it?" Beth/Lady Maude curiously asks him.

"Of course I did and I still do from time to time. I'm feeling nervous now as well. I'd feel much more comfortable going alone because then I would be the only one in danger, it makes it easier that way. Julian is smarter than he thinks honestly; we are warned about Nimrod and then less than twenty-four hours later we get a distress call from Forge. Doesn't that seem a little odd to you? Nothing is every that simple in this line of work. We are likely going into a fight with a machine, from the future, designed to kill mutants," Wade explains to her. "If you come Beth make sure it is for the right reasons. You can be a great hero, but only if you want it."

Nori/Surge, Santo/Rockslide, Cessily/Mercury, David/Prodigy, and Laura/X-23 all walk into the hanger in their uniforms and battle ready. As they walk up to the Blackbird Wade and Beth/Lady Maude relax a bit after having that conversation.

"So are we ready to go?" Nori/Surge asks Wade and Beth/Lady Maude.

"Yea, we are ready to go Surge. I've even locked the navigation into Forge's distress signal. The X-Men sure have some fancy toys," Wade tells Nori/Surge.

"Okay then let's get going then," Nori/Surge tells the team and enters the Blackbird.

The other young X-Men and Wade follow her with Wade taking a seat in the pilot seat and David/Prodigy in the co-pilot seat. The team launches almost right away to save Forge. Even with the Blackbird's speed they do have a little time before they arrive to plan, but seeing as they didn't have much information going into the situation there isn't much discussion outside of pairings and duties. Laura/X-23 was assigned security to track and detect enemies; Julian/Hellion and Beth/Lady Maude were assigned as the front and rear guard respectively, and the others filling in the middle. Once they arrive they enter the skyscraper from the roof and proceed as planned until they reach Forge's workshop. The entire building is quiet and poorly light with no sign of Forge or anyone else.

"Its way to quiet, I have a bad feeling about this," Wade tells the others unsheathing Olihandrew.

"Awww you scared big hero?" Julian/Hellion mocks.

"No, my bad feelings usually come with good reason," Wade explains to Julian/Hellion.

Wade and Laura's eyes widen as they sense it. "SCATTER!" They both yell as they and the rest of the team jump out of the way as a large blast of energy flies by them barely missing the slower members. Out of the far side of the room, where the blast originated, a pinkish robot hovers out of the shadows.

" _Engaging new targets, compensating for magically enhanced human,"_ Nimrod's robotic voice echoes throughout the room.

"Don't take it on solo! It's a mutant killer with future tech and it looks fully operational!" Wade relies to the others.

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH FORGE!?" Nori/Surge screams sending a large burst of electrical energy at Nimrod, which barely slows it down.

Nimrod attempts to fire a blast at Nori/Surge just to be hit by a telekinetic combo blast by Beth/Lady Maude and Julian/Hellion. "Surge, calm down or you'll end up being a liability to your team! Focus on right now and we'll worry about the rest after the fight!" Wade shouts and then sends a Nova at Nimrod which does nothing to it.

"I got him!" Cessily/Mercury yells as she jumps on Nimrod's back and stabs it with her arms in the shape of blades. While it does penetrate Nimrod's armor it sends an electrical shock into her causing her intense pain. Laura/X-23 jumps into the fray and cuts Cessily's/Mercury's hands off freeing her from the painful electrical shock. Fortunately, Cessily's/Mercury's liquid metal body allows her to reform her hands.

Wade charges Nimrod and slashes at it with Olihandrew cutting into its armor. "Its barrier doesn't seem to block physical attacks. Good to know, but he need that barrier knocked out for our big guns," Wade thinks to himself. He notices that Nimrod is readying a blast to fire at him and he activates his Crimson Shroud. Four red ribbons come from Wade's back and form a force field in front of him to block the shot. As Nimrod fires it shatters the left side of the shield, pushing Wade back and grazing his face ripping through the left side of his mask. As Wade lands on the ground he is utterly shocked, his Crimson Shroud has never buckled before much less scatter like that. Wade sees Nimrod go for a killing point blank blast on Laura/X-23. He uses what's left of his Shroud to form a shield over his right arm and puts Olihandrew in his left hand. He blitzes to Laura/X-23, blocks the blast with his shield, wraps his left arm around Laura/X-23 and blitzes both of them away as the shield scatters and his arm is engulfed by the energy blast.

They appear in the corner of the room about seven feet away from Nimrod. Wade's arm is burnt and bloody from the blast tearing through his Crimson Shroud and magic armor, his face full of pain and aggravation. "Your arm…" Laura/X-23 says. "I would have been fine."

"I doubt that. That blast tore through my defenses and still hurt me this badly. Even if you could recover from it, and I would be willing to bet you could, there are two problems with it," Wade grunts in pain. "One, you would have been hurt, and two, you would have taken too long to recover. I need you to beat this bastard, so listen to what I'm about to say and follow it to the letter. We do this right and we go home with a few cuts and bruises."

The others continue to fight Nimrod but with very little effect with Nimrod able to counter most of their powers and attacks with ease. Fortunately, with a combination of Nori/Surge unleashing her powers at her max by removing the gauntlets and Julian/Hellion distracting Nimrod they manage to knock out Nimrod's barrier. This is exactly what Wade was waiting and he charges Nimrod with Olihandrew in his left hand. Nimrod notices this and readies to blast him, but Wade parries Nimrod's arm knocking it out of the way as the blast fires. Wade then ducks down and Laura jumps over him and starts cutting into Nimrod's body exposing its insides. As Nimrod reacts to throw Laura off she uses the machine as a springboard and jumps backwards away from it. Wade then leans back up and as he takes a step forward and swings a glowing red Olihandrew into the opening in Nimrod's armor sending a massive red wave of energy toward Nimrod engulfing it entirely and the wave crashes into the wall and continues until it blows out the side of the building as well. Only pieces of Nimrod remain after the dust settles and most of the teenage heroes catch their breath after the battle, but Nori/Surge rushes to look for Forge.

"Holy crap! Why didn't you start with that!?" Julian/Hellion inquires.

"Because I can't really control it yet, it was supposed to be smaller and much more focus not a wide area blast like that. While it looked pretty it was only about half its intended strength and it used up basically all my energy. Go with Surge and help her find Forge," Wade answers taking a knee to rest.

Beth/Lady Maude, walks over to Wade and sits down next to him. "You okay CK?"

"CK?" Wade says with a smirk.

"Yep, it's easier than saying Crimson Knight all the time," Beth/Lady Maude says with a smile.

"You still nervous?" Wade asks her.

"No when the fighting started everything just went away. I was completely in the moment trying to take everything in, watching my teammates, I didn't have time to worry," Beth/Lady Maude explains.

"I knew you would be alright. I do this because for me it is the only path I see. I have power so I should use it for the right cause. Looks like you are cut out for this life after all," Wade tells her with a smile.

"Is your arm going to be okay? We should go ahead and treat it," Beth/Lady Maude tells him.

"Oh when did you take first aid? It should be fine, but I'm not sure how long it'll take to heal. I've never had damage this extensive before," Wade tells her as Laura/X-23 crouches down in front of him holding a medical kit.

"I went to the Blackbird and got this to treat you," Laura/X-23 tells him as she opens the kit and starts treating Wade's arm.

Nori/Surge and Julian/Hellion come back into the room with Forge and Storm while the rest of the young X-Men look around the room with the exception of Laura/X-23 who is treating Wade's arm.

"Laura, I know it's not easy for you at the Institute, but I'm glad you decided to come and have stayed even though Emma seems to hate that you were let to stay. I guess Scott still has a few redeeming qualities to him after all," Wade tells her with a smile.

"You know about what Emma is doing then?" Laura/X-23 asks him.

"Just that she wants you gone. What else has she done?" Wade asks her.

"She has been sending unpleasant images into my head, making me see things," Laura/X-23 tells him.

"What kind of things?" Wade asks in a serious tone.

"My mother's corpse mostly, but please don't interfere. I promised Logan I would try to stay and make this work," Laura/X-23 tells him.

"Laura…I…that's not easy for me to do, you know what kind of person I am, but fine I promise I will let you handle it," Wade says with a sigh as Laura/X-23 finishes with the bandage.

"I can't believe you kids beat Nimrod," Forge says surprised.

"It is quite an accomplishment to be sure," Ororo/Storm adds.

"Is there anyone here? If not I suggest we get back to the Institute. I'm sure O*N*E* is getting ready to send out the troops to find you all," Wade tells them.

The team, along with Forge and Storm, board the Blackbird to return to the Xavier Institute and the flight back is uneventful as is the rest of the night once they get back. The worst part was the lecture they all got from Scott/Cyclops about leaving without permission, but praising them on beating an opponent like Nimrod on their own.

Author's Note: So I tried a new way to spilt identify the heroes in this chapter because of the volume of the characters and ended up hating it and cutting much of the combat because of it, so I will start using the character's superhero names for the lesser known characters and given names for the more popular heroes going forward.


	7. Chapter 7: Crimson Knight Captured

Chapter 7: "Crimson Knight Captured"

The next night Wade is called to the Headmaster's office to talk to Scott about the Nimrod incident that occurred last night. While he is not overly concern about talking to Scott, he knows that it is about time for him to leave the X-Men and get back to being a hero at large. He has spent far too much time here as is, but he wanted to make sure he helped what's left of the mutant community when they needed it the most. He enters the room to see Emma, Logan and Scott all in the room.

"Hey kid, good work by the way," Logan says with a smirk and pats Wade on the shoulder and walks out of the room.

"Hey Scott, Emma, you wanted to talk to me?" Wade says as he sits down.

"Hello Wade and yes, we'd like to thank you for all the help and support you have provided. You have shown yourself a valuable ally to the X-Men and all of Mutant kind. We have discussed it at length and we'd like to offer you a permeant place here if you are willing," Scott tells Wade with a smile.

"You would be on staff as a consultant and teaching business and finances," Emma adds.

"As much as I would like to Scott I can't. I wouldn't be staying for the right reasons if I stayed. Both Beth and Laura are here. I would be staying for them, but you or they don't need me here every day, but when you do need me, and you will, call me and I'm come to help," Wade tells Scott and Emma and places a phone on the desk. "Speaking of Laura, thank you letting her stay Scott. She needs a place like this that can help her find herself."

"Logan vouched for her and agrees with you and she is a mutant, so no need to thank me. I am sorry to hear you won't be staying, but I understand. Thank you again and if you need the X-Men you know where to find us," Scott tells him extending his hand, which Wade accepts and shakes his hand. "When will you be leaving?"

"Tonight, I have a few good-byes I want to say before I go," Wade tells him.

"Okay then, take as much time as you need," Scott tells him.

After that Wade stands up and leaves the room. As he walks past the common room he sees Beth talking with Julian while they watch T.V. and he just watches them interact for a while until she notices him.

"Wade, you know it's creeping when you ninja up on me like that. What's up?" Beth asks him.

"Got a second?" Wade asks her motions for her to come into the hall.

"Umm sure," Beth says and jumps over the couch to meet him.

"I'm leaving tonight. I just wanted you to know that I am glad you found your place here. Please stay safe, I know it seems like things can't get worse, but they can and likely will, so be ready for it. Mutants still have a lot of enemies out there," Wade tells her. "Stay calm and focused and I doubt anyone will be able to match you."

"Alright, you be careful too. You are way too reckless," Beth says and hugs him. "But before you go, how is your arm? Your face seems to have healed up nicely." She asks as she finishes the hug.

"It's back to one hundred percent. Don't worry about me I'll stay safe," Wade answers with a smile before walking away.

Elsewhere outside of the X-Mansion, Laura is sitting on the ground looking off into the night sky with Mercury next to her.

"I did not mean to hurt you," Laura says out of the blue.

"What? Oh when we were fighting Nimrod. It's okay I was wanting to lose a few pounds anyway, so don't worry about it. Besides you probably saved my life. Electricity and me don't get along very well," Mercury says with a giggle.

Wade walks up to the two ladies. "Hey Cessily can I borrow Laura for a bit?"

"Oh sure, I'll talk to you later Laura," Mercury says and walks away.

"Can I sit?" Wade asks Laura.

"Yes," Laura answers and Wade sits down.

"Thank you. Laura if you let them they can help you find out how important your life is. There are good people here and in the X-Men. You can control your life here and make friends, people that care for you," Wade tells her.

"I understand, but I am not sure I will be able to do that," Laura tells him.

"I want to give you something I made while I was training." Wade says and takes off his necklace with a crest of a red dragon attached to it and shows it to Laura.

"Why are you giving me this?" Laura asks him blankly.

"When I made it, my master told me that it would help guide me throughout my life. I think you need it more than I do," Wade tells her and puts it around her neck.

"Thank you, I will look after it," Laura tells him. "How is your arm? I am not very good at treating injuries."

"It's okay I don't have precise control yet. I think the nerves are still healing. Six months ago it would've taken a week to heal, so all things considered," Wade tells her.

"Why are you so interested in me? The girl from the other world wasn't me," Laura bluntly tells him.

"Yeah, you're right, she wasn't you. Laura I can't explain it. I've tried to break it down in my head, but the answer is I just do. That's the real reason I got you out of the way of Nimrod's blast. I just moved without thinking Laura," Wade tells her. "I just want you in my life and I can't explain it."

"I still don't quite understand, but thank you regardless," Laura tells him and leans into his shoulder. Wade puts his hand under her chin and raises her head gently and leans in and kisses her.

"Ahhh aint that sweet!" a burly voice cackles from behind them causing Wade to pull away from Laura quickly.

"Logan!?" Wade yells in surprise.

"Relax kid, I wanted to see how you'd react," Logan says with a smirk. "Judging by your reaction I'd say you have next to no experience with girls do ya?"

Wade bushes a bit and turns away. "None at all, before now."

"Kid, that's not normally somethin' someone your age admits," Logan says with a chuckle.

"Anyway, Laura I'm leaving for now, but I'd like to come by and see you whenever I get the chance. I'd like to take you out to, but you don't seem like the dinner and a movie type of girl," Wade rumbles on.

"Sure, I think I would like that," Laura tells him. "And we could always spar; we can actually fight for real now."

Laura and Wade exchange numbers and for the first time, in a long time, Wade is happy. As he leaves he gives one last glance to Laura in the moonlight before he vanishes.

*Two Months Later*

Over the last two months Wade has been visiting Beth and Laura at the Xavier Institute, and his relationship with both has never been stronger. Cassandra, his sister, and he have bought a mansion in Rockland County New York that they now call home and it acts as the base of operations for Crimson Knight with Cassandra providing technical support. As for Wade and Laura's relationship status, it has evolved into spending time outside of the Xavier Institute together and dinner, but because of Laura's overall inability to create or act on emotional attachment and Wade's naivety has stalled the relationship from progressing further although, Laura has become extremely protective of Wade.

Wade and Laura are walking down the sidewalk in New York exchanging small talk with each other. "You know we are being followed right?" Laura asks Wade.

"They've been following us for a while. They aren't too bad at it to be honest, I only spotted them about fifteen minutes ago or so," Wade tells Laura. "But I bet you've known about them from the start with your nose."

"Yes, they have been following us since we left that card shop you wanted to stop at," Laura tells him.

"Is that so? You hungry?" Wade asks her.

"Yes, I could eat," Laura tells him.

"There is a place not far from here. I think they'll have food spicy enough for you," Wade tells her with a smile.

The two enter a small restaurant and get a table by the front window. It's nothing fancy, just a regular small dinner. Wade orders a burger and Laura gets a burger as well but also asks for peppers and hot sauce as well.

"This place isn't very fancy, but the food is good and the owner loves spicy food," Wade tells her.

"Do you eat here ofte…" Laura starts but notices a glimmer on the roof of a building across the street. "DOWN!" She yells and forces Wade to the ground as an explosion encompasses the dinner and knocks Wade and Laura apart from each other.

A few vans speed up to the dinner and several armed men with assault rifles jump out of them as another explosion goes off close by. The men cautiously approach Wade and Laura who are lying on the ground amidst the rubble of the dinner. One of the men hits Wade in the head with stock of his rifle to make sure he is out. Right as the stock makes contact with Wade, Laura jumps up and pops her claws and kills the man only to get hit with a crossbow bolt, then another and another.

"Hey X! Long time no see," a large woman holding a hand crossbow says grinning madly and she fires another crossbow bolt into Laura's neck.

"Ki..mu..ra…" Laura is barely able to say.

"Load the boy into the van. Don't forget the neural disruptor and shackles," Kimura barks to the soldiers. "Alpha target secure. Did you get Beta target? Good." She says into a headset and follows the soldiers into the vans and they speed off.

Laura is unable to move for a little while until her healing factor burns through the tranquilizers the bolts where laced with and she starts pulling them out when she notices Cassandra and Beth running up to her.

"Laura! Are you okay? Where is Wade?" Cassandra screams frantically.

"Some people took Cessily!" Beth tells her.

"They looked a lot like the guys that attacked us in Atlanta a few years ago!" Cassandra adds.

"They took Wade. It was the facility," Laura manages to say even though her throat hasn't fully healed yet.

"What do we do?" Cassandra asks.

"We go after them obviously," Beth answers.

"No, I will get them back. Both of you go home now," Laura tells them both.

"Laura, this is my brother we are talking about here! I haven't known Cessily for long but I want to help her too if I can!" Cassandra objects.

"Cassandra, you aren't suited to fighting. If you went you would die. I will get both of them back I promise," Laura tells her.

"Well I am going and that's not negotiable. I have powers and training," Beth interjects. "Don't worry Cassie, Laura and I have this."

"Fine," Laura says with a grunt. "Let's go, I know where we should start."

"Please be careful, I wish I could help," Cassandra tells them.

**A few hours later**

Laura has led Beth to an abandoned looking apartment building. "This is a cover for an information broker operating out of New York. He will likely have information on the abduction." Laura explains. "Stay quiet and follow me." Laura explains and starts walking through the building and heads upstairs. She gets half way to the second floor before she stops. * _Sniff sniff*_

"What is it Laura?" Beth asks.

"I smell gunsmoke and blood," Laura tells her and hurries up the stairs and quietly rushes over to a door.

Beth follows her quietly and takes a position behind her. Laura slowly pushes the door open enough to see inside. See sees a man lying on the ground surrounded by blood. She hears someone talking quietly. It sounds like someone is being questioned. Laura slowly enters the room and sees a man in a black jumpsuit with a gun holding another man by the collar. The man in the jumpsuit quickly turns to Laura and points his gun at her. Laura sees this and charges the man popping her claws.

"WAIT!" Beth yells and grabs the man in the black jumpsuit and Laura with her telekinetic powers.

"Well this was unexpected," The man in the black jumpsuit says. "How have you been Beth?"

"What are you doing here Tim?" Beth asks.

"Trying to find my little brother, same as you, can we do this somewhere else and without, you know, being held in place by your powers?" Tim asks with a smile. "Also I know where they took them thanks to our friend here."

Beth lets go of Laura and Tim and Laura walks over to Tim with her claws still out. "Okay where are we going? Laura it's okay he is a friend."

"Let me call…" Tim start as Laura stabs the man Tim was integrating in the chest.

"Laura! What are you doing!?" Beth screams.

"He was no longer useful and would have warned whomever he just gave up. It was the best option to ensuring we are able to save Wade and Cessily," Laura coldly tells her.

"That is true, but there were other ways to keep him quiet. Killing is only something that should be done when absolutely necessary," Tim says as he holsters his gun and walks over to a coat in the corner of the room and puts it on. "Let's go I have a car across the street we can talk on the way."

Laura, Beth, and Tim all leave the building and go to a car parked across the street and leave the area in it. There is a long silence until Beth speaks up.

"Laura, I know you were trying to help, but you shouldn't have killed that man. You won't be killing a defenseless person again okay? If you have to kill an armed person I won't like it, but I'll understand that," Beth explains.

"You know Beth, Wade and your beliefs aren't always the best option. Wade is very naïve and it is rubbing off on you. He's going to end up biting off more than he can chew and his powers and abilities won't be enough to get him out of it and he'll have to make a choice that will haunt him forever," Tim explains to Beth.

"Wait how do…?" Beth starts to ask but is interrupted.

"I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D. and I've made it my business to keep an eye on the little monkey and firecracker," He answers her.

"Monkey and firecracker?" Laura asks.

"Wade is monkey and Cassie is firecracker. They needed nicknames when they were little," Tim tells her with a smile. "There isn't much in their lives I don't know about. I even see why Wade is infatuated with Laura over here. Strong, intelligent, loyal, and despite how hard you try you deeply care for people that get close to you. The very few you let get close that is."

Laura just stares at him with a disgruntled look on her face. "You don't know what you are talking about." She tells him.

"Sure don't, that's why you have his necklace around your neck," Tim says with a chuckle.

"Okay enough teasing Laura, where are we going?" Beth asks.

"There is a lab that the Facility is using upstate. We are about fifteen minutes out. We can enter the building from the roof. Beth you will need to levitate us up there. Once we get inside I'll cause a distraction and you two go find Wade and the other girl they kidnapped, Cessily, I believe," Tim explains to the girls.

"What about you?" Beth asks.

"Well after you save them, I'll be long gone, so don't wait up for me. Trust me I'll be fine, this is what I do for a living," Tim reassures Beth.

It takes about ten more minutes before they get to a spot where they have to stop the car and continue on foot. Tim goes to the trunk of the car and pulls out an assault rifle, a small duffle bag, and some combat gear. After putting on the gear they hide the car with some camouflage Tim had in the bag.

"Okay, everyone ready? Good let's go," Tim says and he starts leading the two girls to the lab, which takes them about twenty minutes to. All that separates them is a open space of about fifteen feet. Fortunately, no one is guarding the side all that is there are a few security cameras. "Okay I can knock out the cameras for about twentyish seconds before they send someone to fix it. Beth you think you can get us on the roof in that time?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, but what do we do from there?" Beth asks.

"If we get to the roof I can get us in easily," Laura answers her.

"Okay then, ready?" Tim asks them and when they shake their heads yes he presses a button on his watch. "Go!" He quietly commands and runs toward the building with the girls.

Once they get to the building Beth wastes no time in levitating them to the roof and softly puts them down. "Okay Laura you're up," Beth says.

Laura looks and heads over to vent and pulls the grating off. "Beth, you will need to use your powers to keep the ventilation shaft from buckling under our weight and we'll have to move quietly to avoid attention. I will find the best place for us to exit the vents," Laura explains quietly.

All three enter the vent and quietly follow Laura until she finds a safe place for them to exit the vents. They drop down in an empty hallway and check a nearby room. The room is empty so they all enter it.

"Okay girls, I doubt its going to take them long to find us. I am hoping I can cause enough of a distraction to pull most of the guards to me while you two find Wade and Cessily, however expect resistance as they will notice you before you are able to find them," Tim whispers to them.

"Alright what should we do?" Beth asks.

"Give me ten minutes then go and find them," Tim tells her and runs out of the room.

Five minutes go by and they hear a large explosion go off somewhere in the building. "He is luring them to the top floors. Wade and Cessily are much more likely to be on the lower levels. We should have an easier time getting to them now," Laura states.

"Right," Beth acknowledges.

They wait the remaining five minutes before leaving the room and Laura takes the lead as her heightened sense of smell will locate Wade and Cessily faster. They stop briefly from time to time, at turns and stairs, for Laura to get a sense of what direction their scent is coming from. Eventually, Laura stops altogether and gives Beth the sign to stop as well, which she does.

"What is it?" Beth whispers.

"Oil, gunpowder, and a lot of people are on the other side of this door. All ready to fire," Laura whispers quietly.

Beth looks around and sees a fire extinguisher. "I have an idea," she says with a smile and leads Laura away from the door and grabs the fire extinguisher with her telekinetic powers and throws it through the door. When it hits the door gun fire erupts and the fire extinguisher explodes creating a smoke screen and Laura takes the opportunity to charge in and attacks the armed guards and Beth follows tossing people into other people and pulling their weapons away from the guards as the smoke clears. Twenty guards lay either dead or unconscious.

"We need to hurry before the rest of the guards come back. They should be holding them close by," Laura tells Beth as she starts sniffing.

"Okay, which way?" Beth asks and Laura motions a direction and runs off in that direction with Beth following closely behind.

*Elsewhere in the Facility*

Wade is awoken from the sounds of screaming in pain to find his feet and both hands locked in high tech bindings with his body elevated above the ground. After looking around the room he sees Mercury in a tube across the room where she is being tortured with electricity. After counting the people in the room there are ten scientists and fifteen heavily armed guards. He tries to moved his hands and feet but quickly stops as he notices the movement and pressure sensors in the bindings. He can't even activate his powers and he notices a bandage on his left arm and thigh.

"What has happened here? Okay think of your next step Wade. Getting out of these binds should be fairly easy, but getting to Cessily and taking down the guards poses an issue. They clearly know I am Crimson Knight and have found some way to nullify my Soulforge. I can still feel the power inside, but can't seem to manifest outwardly. They have me elevated, which poses a slight issue, though less of one since my powers are locked up at the moment," Wade says to himself still looking around the room for more information.

"Very good you are awake now. To think that Crimson Knight was a rich, pampered child with too much free time on his hands. It was revelation when we discovered this," a woman in a labcoat mocks Wade as he looks down at her. "You have caused us so much trouble. Now that you are here we can study you in much more detail." She smirks. "What's the matter say something!"

"Sorry, but I tend to not waste my time," Wade tells her in a cocky tone.

"You are imprisoned. You have a lot of spare time as it stands now," she tells Wade.

"I don't see Laura here. Unless you killed, which I doubt, she will come and do exactly what you bastards taught her to do. You see I already know how this will pan out in the long run. I could escape from these binds and free Cessily as well. I would escape with a gunshot wound or two and a few broken bones. I have already planned it out in my head with seventy-two contingency strategies," Wade explains calmly to the woman.

"Then why don't you escape?" the woman asks.

"Because if I wait Cessily and I get out much better shape," Wade explains to her.

"Perhaps you are correct, but we already have the data we need from you and the mutant girl over there," the woman tells him.

"Then we'll just make sure there isn't anything left before we leave," Wade tells her with a smirk.

After a short silence the woman walks away from Wade and goes about her work. Wade, still thinking of a way out of the situation, looks throughout the room looking for anything he can use to his advantage. He notices that the people in the room are starting to act very nervously about something. He deduces that he was right and Laura is here and is causing trouble looking for them. Some of the guards line up in front of a large door with their weapons drawn. After a few moments the door is pushed into the room with a violent force. The guards start opening fire toward the doorway and Laura charges into the gunfire and starts attacking the guards and Wade also sees objects being thrown into the guards as well, seemingly from nowhere. Wade takes this chance to free himself from the bindings. As he moves his hands carefully to release himself from the binds he slips up and a small shock goes into his body. It only takes him about a minute to free both arms and legs and he uses the confusion to get over to Mercury's holding chamber. Wade finds a terminal on the chamber and starts trying to use it to open the chamber. By the time Laura and Beth get to Wade most of the Facility's people are either dead, unconscious, or have fled the room. It only takes Wade a few more moments to free Mercury.

As the tube opens, Mercury falls out of it and Wade catches her. She is in a semi-solid form when he catches her. "Cessily are you alright?" Wade asks her.

"We need to leave. Now." Laura exclaims.

"Let Cessily get her bearings first," Beth tells Laura.

Mercury slowly regains her senses and stands up. She looks at Laura, Wade, and Beth. "Oh I knew you would come to save me!" she cries.

"Can you walk?" Wade asks her. She nods and they both stand up. Wade glows red and his costume appears of him. "I don't know how useful I'll be. Whatever they did to me is making it difficult to use my powers."

"Don't worry we can handle this," Beth says energetically.

"I see that. Hopefully it'll be as easy to get out as it was to get…" Wade is unable to finish as three large creatures with liquid metal skin leap through a wall at them.

Beth grabs them with her powers and throws them across the room and through the far wall with terrifying power. "That was closer than I would have liked!" she loudly proclaims as she lifts the chamber that imprisoned Mercury moments ago with her powers and throws it at one of the creatures.

Wade and Laura charge the creatures. Wade tries to ready a nova, but is unable to channel enough magic into Olihandrew and instead slashes at the creature, cutting deeply into it. As it roars in pain one of the other creatures jumps at Wade only to be intercepted by Laura as she cuts into it with her claws. The creature that Wade attacked starts to lounge at him with its mouth only to have many pieces of metal, glass, and other materials fly into it at an insane speed killing it. Wade looks back at Mercury and Beth to see that it was Beth that threw the objects that killed the creature. Wade hates to admit it, but he may just have been saved twice. With his powers as they are now, he is little more than a human. He has fallen into relying on his powers to get him through these fights now. "Wait… there were three… Where is the last one?" he asks himself as he starts looking around and he finds a large hole in the floor of the next room. "It got away… I'm sure that'll come back to bite us later."

Mercury walks over to the dead creatures and some of the liquid metal skin from the creatures joins her body, after focusing a little she is able to reabsorb a little more of the liquid metal. "That's about all I can absorb back into my body I think," she states.

Laura stares at Wade. "How much power do you have left?" Laura asks.

"I am not sure, maybe enough for one mercy strike or one psionic slash, but that's it. I couldn't even use a nova Laura. I can feel the power, but I can't access it," Wade tells her. "So maybe one yellow or purple blade, but that's a maybe. I am pretty useless at the moment. Even my armor is just cosmetic at this point." He tells her. "How did you find us so quickly? Not that I am complaining mind you."

"I see. We had help from your brother actually," Laura explains.

"What? Tim helped you?" Wade asks.

"He is with SHIELD and he was already looking for you we met him," Beth explains.

"I never would have guessed that. I guess I need to get rid of all my blind spots to make sure nothing catches me by surprise," Wade tells them. "Let's trash this place and get out of here." Wade and the others go about destroying all the computers and research material in the room before exiting.

They decide to hurry through the facility to avoid any more trouble from the guards. With Mercury still recovery from her torture and Wade's power out of his reach avoiding combat was the best decision. They only run into minor resistance until they get to the surface where they are met by Kimura and several dozen guards.

"Hey X! Sorry but we can't just let you leave!" Kimura says with a evil smile.

"Not good. Her skin is invulnerable," Laura says griting her teeth.

"Just her skin?" Wade asks.

"Yes why?" Laura asks.

"Then you take the guards. I'll take the invulnerable chick. Trust me. If her insides are vulnerable then I am the best bet to beat her decisively," Wade says drawing Olihandrew and walks toward Kimura.

"Oh you think you can beat me? You can't even use your powers! How do you intend to beat me?" Kimura laughs.

"Well I have one shot and that should be more than enough," Wade calmly tells her.

As Laura and Beth attack the guards Wade runs at Kimura and slashes at her. Kimura just blocks the sword with her forearm and the blade does nothing to her. "Damn looks like even a magic blade can cut her," Wade says to himself. Seeing the blade did nothing he kicks her in the stomach as hard as he can, while it doesn't hurt her it does knock her back a bit. "So at least I can still kick her around, but a mercy strike won't be enough to take her out, at least not just one. Guess I'll have to use a psionic slash then." Wade tells himself.

Kimura pulls out an electric baton and swings it at Wade to which he parries it with Olihandrew and throws a left punch into Kimura's face sending her staggering backwards a few steps. Wade follows up with a spin kick to her neck and then a right straight to her neck with the hilt of Olihandrew. Kimura is pushed back a few steps, but no damage is done through the physical attacks.

"What? I thought you said you could beat me?" Kimura mocks him.

"Yeah I can, but honestly I did think I could you much easier," Wade tells her with a smirk. Wade sheaths Olihandrew and gets into a stance. "This is going to hurt a lot Kimura."

"Oh really? Then hurt me!" Kimura mockingly screams as she swings at Wade. Just before the punch connects with Wade, he steps forward and pulls his sword from the sheath in the form of a slash right into Kimura. When Olihandrew is pulled out of the sheath the blade is purple and when it makes contact with Kimura it goes right through her body. Wade then spins past Kimura striking her with the blade two more times before the blade goes back to normal and stops when it makes contact with her invulnerable skin.

"Damn I was hoping to have enough time to hit her at least four more times," Wade says to himself as Kimura hits the ground.

Laura and Beth make short work of the guards while Wade fought with Kimura. "Wade what was THAT!?" Beth asks.

"Battojutsu combined with my psionic blade. The blade becomes ethereal and doesn't make physical contact with an opponent," Wade tells them. "When I cut someone with my psionic blade it attacks them on a psychic level. We need to leave now." Wade sheaths his sword and they all leave the facility with no more incidents.

Wade, Beth, Mercury, and Laura all walk through the woods to get back to the car they took to get there. Once they arrive at the car they see Tim waiting for them.

"Hey kids, what took you so long? Ready to go?" Tim asks the group.

"Hey bub, so S.H.I.E.L.D. huh? It makes sense why you were gone so much," Wade says with a smile. "Let's go." All five of them squeeze into the car and they leave the area.

Tim had called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. retrieval unit to go into the Facility to arrest the Facility members and collect any data remaining. By the time they arrived Kimura was gone as were several other scientists.


	8. Prelude to Chapter 8

Chapter 7.5: Prelude

Two months have passed since Wade was kidnapped and freed by his friends. He is currently at his home in upstate New York and has trying to figure out how the facility knew how to nullify his powers these past two months. He has spent hundreds of hours researching and recalling every detail from the Facility. The only conclusion he can come up with is they either know more about his Soulforge than he does or someone else who does helped them. As far as he knows he is the only person in the world with a Soulforge. Wade goes through myths, legends and rumors, old and new, from all over the word looking for anything that resembles someone with a Soulforge and after nearly two months he finds a connection. There is a man that appears in multiple cultures every few hundred years with a very similar appearance and motivations all with powers that sound like they came from a Soulforge. This has to be it. This person has to be the person that helped the Facility, but why come forward now?

Hello everyone, I am sorry for the slow release for chapter 8. Work has been kind of crazy and I am trying to make Ch. 8 very good and epic, so please be waiting for that. I hope to have it out by the end of October.


	9. Chapter 8

Hello all, I am very sorry for not updating the story for such a long time. I am still working on it and I hope to have two chapters coming out every month going forward.

Chapter 8: Zuion

"Zuion," Wade says looking down at a crude illustration in an old book. "This person has appeared throughout history going by different names, but his powers have always been the same and very similar to mine. Could he really be the same man or is the Soulforge a power that appears every so often? No I don't think that's it," he sits down and leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes.

"Wade you in here?" Casandra asks peeking into the room and walks in with a coffee cup in her hand when she sees him. "Are you okay?" she places the cup down in front of him.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just been wracking my brain over this for a while now. I guess I need to take a break and get some sleep," Wade says with a smile before leaving the room and going to his room to sleep.

 ****The next morning****

Wade is patrolling New York as Crimson Knight before heading into Prometheus to work on an expansion plan in the Genetics Division. The morning is very and mostly uneventful, just an attempted mugging that was easily dealt with. As Wade enters Prometheus headquarters he sees Jacob Hashinger, the lead on a new genetics project that could cure dozens of autoimmune diseases. Jacob has been with the company since its start and predates the large expansions that started relatively recently.

"Oh Mr. Clemons, it's nice to see you this morning," Jacob in a respectful tone and a large smile.

"Jacob, please call me Wade. Why don't we head up to my office and we can discuss your proposal," Wade advises and beckons Jacob to the elevator and he follows slowly.

The elevator quickly makes it to the top floor with no stops. The entire floor is for Wade, Cassandra, his father, and their assistants. Wade and Jacob walk to Wade's office where his assistant greets them.

The woman with white hair and green skin stands up and greets them. "Hello Mr. Clemons, I'll make you both a cup of coffee and bring it in when it is finished," the woman says respectfully. Seeing mutants working at Prometheus is not a rare sight at all and most employees are used to it, but some guests are not as use to it. Fortunately, most of the devices Prometheus develops are far too valuable to scare off business and customers because they are "mutant lovers." It does cause issues and boycotts have happened but never lasted too long.

Wade and Jacob sit down in his office and Jacob takes out a stack of files from his briefcase. "Mr…Wade, I think we have discovered a way to rewrite the immune response for autoimmune diseases. For example, someone who's immune response is no longer identifying an infection as an infection this treatment would be tailored to their circumstances and work to reboot their immune system. Kind of like restoring your computer to factory specifications or to an earlier state when it was working properly. This treatment would not be a permanent change to the subject's genetic structure and would require continued treatment for about a year before the body adapts to the corrected immune response," Jacob explains with increasing excitement pointing to graphs and diagrams spread out of the desk.

The door opens and Wade's assistant walks in with two cups of coffee and places them on the desk before quietly walking out. Wade smiles softly as Jacob explains his findings. "Jacob, you have put this much work into this already? I'm impressed. Of course we will fully fund the project after I look over your findings." Wade says with a large smile.

"Really? Oh thank you so much!" Jacob exclaims excitedly clumsily packing up his files and leaving the room.

"Sir, your next appointment is here. Do you want me to send him in?" a voice comes from his phone speaker.

"Yes, please send him in," Wade says pushing a button on his phone.

A well-dressed man with blonde hair walks in and walks over to the window and looks out. "You have a very beautiful view from here Wade." The man says.

"Yes I do enjoy it," Wade says and walks over to him and looks out the window as well. "So from my understanding you are looking for someone to buy research data?"

"No, I just knew if I made an enticing offer you would talk to me in person. Your Soulforge is quiet impressive for someone so young. I was in my forties before I could control it as well as you do." The man says with a smile.

Wade's expression changes completely. "Who are you?" Wade asks bluntly with anger in his voice.

"Oh, is that how a hero talks in this age? I've had thousands of names over the years, Zuion is my birth name." Zuion tells him.

"You were the one that told the Facility how to neutralize my powers. What do you want?" Wade asks sternly.

"That's simple. You have a Soulforge and I can't allow you or anyone else with one to live. You are the second person I have ever met with a Soulforge. I can't let someone else have access to this kind of power." Zuion says and a lance appears in his hand.

"So the Facility couldn't kill me so you are going to try? Sounds like you are just a coward that operates from the shadows. Well…." Wade is interrupted by the door opening and his assistant walks in.

"Sir…I was bringing coffee for your guest…" She says and notices the spear. "Is everything okay?"

"Poor timing child. Now I have to kill both of you." Zuion says and points the spear's tip at her.

The assistant drops the coffee cup and sends a green energy blast at Zuion carrying him out the window and leaving him falling to the ground. "Sir are you okay?" she says rushing over to Wade.

"Yes Kelly, thank you very much. You really saved me," Wade says with a smile.

"How did he get a weapon up here?" Kelly asks.

"I have no idea, but I doubt that killed him. Can you clear my schedule for the next few days? I am going to take some personal time." Wade tells her.

"Of course sir," Kelly says and starts walking out.

"Kelly. You just earned a large bonus on your next paycheck. Say $2,000 as a personal thank you." Wade says and looks out the broken window.


End file.
